Hu promises ECFA talks

The sources said Hu made the promise to Lien during a one-hour meeting at the St. Regis Hotel, in which Hu and Lien addressed each other as “General Secretary Hu” and “Chairman Lien,” respectively. Lien, honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and a former vice president, is attending this year's APEC leaders' meeting on behalf of President Ma Ying-jeou. He arrived in Singapore Thursday.

“We must ... strive to start the process of negotiations on the ECFA by the end of the year,” Chinese state television quoted him as telling Lien.

“At present, development of cross-strait relations is faced with an important historical opportunity,” Hu was quoted as telling Lien by China's state news agency Xinhua. “We should firmly grasp the theme of peaceful development of cross-strait relations, maintain the correct direction, widen the road ahead, and constantly open up new prospects for the peaceful development of cross-strait relations,” Hu said.

During the meeting, Hu also expressed hopes that both the Chinese Communist Party and Taiwan's KMT would reinforce exchanges and dialogues, enhance mutual trust politically and create positive conditions for tackling political problems.

Addressing Hu as general secretary, Lien hailed the noticeable improvement in cross-strait relations over the past year. He thanked China for allowing the number of Chinese visitors to Taiwan to significantly increase, and expressed gratitude for Chinese delegations' large scale procurements of Taiwanese products this year, as well as for the Chinese people's donations to Taiwan's victims of Typhoon Morakot.

Lien said it is the responsibility of both sides to create a win-win situation and that he appreciated “Hu's support in this regard.”

At a press conference held yesterday afternoon in Singapore, Lien said that during his first meeting with Hu, both sides worked out five common visions, including termination of hostility across the Strait, signing a cross-strait peace agreement, and establishing a mechanism for building mutual security trust between both sides. Over the years, Hu has repeatedly expressed hopes for both sides to discuss political issues, indicating such issues will inevitably be on the agenda of talks between both sides in the future.

Lien made the remarks in response to Hu's call for both sides to create positive conditions to tackle political problems. But Lien also stressed that in settling cross-strait issues, both sides should follow the principle of “economics comes before politics,” adding that “we should await a mature climate for engaging in talks on political issues.”

Lien said clearly that time is yet to become mature for both sides to touch on political issues, and the ruling parties of both sides should move to build up mutual trust to pave the way for political dialogue.

In a related development, the above-mentioned cross-strait economic cooperation pact is likely to be discussed at the fourth round of talks between Chairman P.K. Chiang of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and Chairman Chen Yunlin of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), slated for Dec. 21-23 in Taichung, central Taiwan.

Taiwan's government officials have said they hope the agreement will be signed by early next year. Although details have not been revealed, it could allow the two sides to enjoy tariff-free trade with each other on many products.

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