Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Sunday, November 27, 2011 0:33 am TWN, The China Post news staff

Sponsors
▪	Save 75% for all hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and whole China. Lowest rates for Flights in China.
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!

Candidates talk cross-strait politics

President Ma Ying-jeou has dismissed claims about Beijing rallying behind his re-election bid, while his major challenger Tsai Ing-wen from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has said she remains “open-minded” to the possibility of her visiting China.

They made the remarks during recent separate interviews by the BBC's Chinese-language website.

In the same interview series, which was conducted last week, James Soong of the People First Party (PFP) expressed open support for eventual unification of Taiwan and the mainland.

Cross-strait relations have been a major source of dispute in Taiwan's elections over the past two decades or so.

Speaking in the interview, Ma, who has managed to improve cross-strait ties since taking office in 2008, said all claims about Beijing supporting his campaign have come from his election rivals, but none of them have been able to produce any proof.

Ma, who doubles as chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), also repeated a call for China to remove ballistic missiles targeted at Taiwan.

He said China's missile deployment is detrimental to the development of cross-strait ties, and has been one of the main reasons why Taiwan dislikes the Beijing government.

Asked if he can have Beijing remove missiles targeted at Taiwan if he is re-elected, Ma said China should be fully aware of the feelings of Taiwan's people.

“There's no need to talk about (the missile issue). It (China) should take the initiative ... (to remove the missiles),” Ma said. “Is it a friendly act when there are missiles constantly targeting me?”

In response to Tsai's open-mindedness towards visiting China, Ma maintained that if re-elected, he would not go across the strait to meet with Chinese leaders during his second four-year term.

Commenting on China's incoming leaders such as Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, Ma said he has some knowledge of them, but any change in the Beijing leadership will not affect its framework for peaceful cross-strait development.

Ma also denied that Tsai has moved past him in the polls as the DPP has claimed. He claimed that internal KMT polls have indicated steadily rising support for him.

He also criticized Tsai's idea of building cross-strait ties on a “Taiwan consensus,” which the president dismissed as “empty.”

1|2|3|Next Page>>