MAC asks Beijing to drop harsh stance

Mainland China has never stopped bullying Taiwan despite President Chen Shui-bian’s several overtures since inauguration, said DPP Deputy Secretary General Lee Ying-yuan.

Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tong expressed similar resentment, but said Taipei will continue seeking direct cross-strait links in a step-by-step manner.

They were both explaining President Chen’s pessimism displayed in an interview published Friday in a Japanese newspaper that it will be difficult to reintroduce cross-strait talks in the coming months leading to the end of his term in May.

The president’s said he is disappointed with mainland Chinese President Hu Jintao because the new leadership has not changed Beijing’s high-handed attitude toward Taiwan.

Lee made the remarks on the sidelines of a seminar, sponsored by the non-profit Taiwan Research Institute, on the effect of SARS on cross-strait relations, which obviously have been further strained over the epidemic.

Beijing’s success in blocking Taipei from becoming an observer at the World Health Assembly’s annual meet in May, and its manipulation against Taiwan during the recent SARS conference in Kuala Lumpur, prompted the president to make the remarks in the interview, Lee said.

The president promised in his inaugural speech that his administration would not hold a referendum on Taiwan’s status during his tenure as long as Beijing did not attack the island, Lee said, but the mainland has failed to respond to the goodwill gestures.

Mainland China even tried to block the WHO from sending officials to Taiwan when the island was being hit by SARS, he added.

But Lee said that Taiwan’s trade with mainland China has become closer and that trade exchanges between the two sides have not registered a dramatic downturn because of SARS.

“Both sides of the Taiwan Strait could seek more cooperation and mutually beneficial opportunities on such issues as trade and health,” Lee said.

He urged to “change its attitude, have more confidence in itself, and use goodwill and cooperation to replace squeezing” so as to help facilitate a resumption in cross-strait talks.

The MAC vice chief, Chen Ming-tung, said that President Chen has shown goodwill toward mainland China on various occasions since he took over the presidency in May 2000, but Beijing has never reciprocated.

Explaining President Chen’s Friday remarks, the MAC official said that Beijing has repeatedly hurt the feelings of the 23 million people of Taiwan by attempting to obstruct the island’s participation in international activities and organizations.

He cited Beijing’s obstruction of Taiwan’s bid at the WHA meet, and its refusal to apologize to Taiwan for the spread SARS (SARS).

Noting that Taiwan can never accept Beijing’s “one China” principle as President Chen said in the interview, the MAC official said that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can promote cross-strait talks in a gradual manner under the prerequisite of respecting each other’s sovereignty.

He also mentioned that President Chen’s “one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait” comment last year is a fact, pointing out that the Republic of China on Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China on the mainland have coexisted since 1949 with neither side representing nor belonging to the other side.

In response to the president’s remarks that cross-strait direct air links would not be possible under the “one China” principle, an official from the opposition People First Party said Chen was politicizing the economic and trade issue.

Chang Hsien-yao, head of the PFP’s policy center, Taipei and Beijing should separate politics from economics, or cross-strait problems will be too complicated to solve.

Chang said his party had expected Chen to back off in the run-up to the March presidential poll from its promises of more cross-strait exchanges.

But he called on the Chen administration to quickly open direct air links to meet the urgent needs of the general public and the businesses seeking bigger shares of the mainland markets.

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