MAC slams Beijing for ignoring official channels over visit plan

Chen has been invited here by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) to take part in a agricultural forum scheduled for the end of October. The party has lodged an application for his visit with the government.

The government is calling for official talks to arrange his visit. Chen was issued a similar invitation by the KMT last year and his visa was rejected as Beijing refused a similar call from Taiwan for official-level talks.

The policy making Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a statement that it had authorized its semi-official agency for negotiating with China, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) to send a letter to its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS).

“(It) is to ascertain the Chinese authorities real attitude and once again invite the PRC authorities to send officials to Taiwan for consultations,” the MAC said in a statement.

Beijing normally shuns any contact with the pro-independence government here, instead choosing to make contact with groups it considers more friendly, such as the relatively pro-China KMT.

Taiwan says official talks are needed to pave the way for such a high-ranking visit. If Chen were to visit, it would be the highest-ranking visit from a mainland official in recent history.

The MAC said Beijing had not responded to an earlier letter from the SEF. It also said that ARATS instead on Monday decided to respond to Taiwan’s calls with a press release published in the mainland media.

In the press release, Beijing said it would reject official cross-strait talks but raised the possibility of consulting with Taiwan officials “under an appropriate name”. Observers said this most likely signified that Beijing was willing to talk to government officials here but not in their capacity as officials of the Republic of China, an entity Beijing insists is illegitimate.

The MAC said it had also noted from Chinese media reports that ARATS might be willing to send officials for consultations with the Taiwanese government.

“If these media reports are genuine, we welcome this,” the MAC statement said, adding it hoped ARATS could respond to the SEF letter as soon as possible.

Taipei also criticized Beijing for choosing to respond to its calls for talks through the Chinese media.

“Our side expresses deep regret that the mainland side dropped existing channels between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and did not formally respond to the letter from the SEF,” the MAC statement said.

“This did not lead to the mainland side expressing a concrete, effective and detailed views (about Chen’s trip),” the statement said.

The MAC said it wanted talks to pave the way for Chen’s visit “based on principles of mutual respect”.

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