Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office yesterday said it hoped to resume
cross-Straits talks soon but insisted that the one-China principle
was a precondition.
Chen Yunlin, director of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office,
said: "Our efforts to push for the resumption of cross-Straits
talks and negotiations on the basis of the one-China principle will
never slacken."
The top Taiwan affairs official added that everything can be
discussed under the one-China principle, including any issue of
concern to Taiwan authorities.
Chen made the remarks in Beijing yesterday at a ceremony to mark
the 10th anniversary of the semi-official Association for Relations
across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS).
The association was established on December 16, 1991. It engaged in
talks with its Taiwan counterpart -- the Straits Exchange
Foundation (SEF) -- between March 1992 and July 1999, in the
absence of official links between Beijing and Taipei.
The talks were broken off after former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui
introduced his notorious "two states'' theory on July 9, 1999,
which defines cross-Straits relations as a state-to-state
relationship.
In
a prepared speech at yesterday's ceremony, association president
Wang Daohan said Beijing ''has always had the utmost sincerity" in
its efforts to strive for an early resumption of talks with the
Straits Exchange Foundation.
He
said the long interruption in cross-Straits dialogue has greatly
hurt the immediate interests of people on both sides of the Taiwan
Straits, especially those of Taiwanese compatriots.
"Now it is high time that the ARATS and SEF restarted their talks
on the basis of their consensus," the top mainland negotiator
said.
Wang also called for the establishment of direct trade, transport
and postal links between the mainland and Taiwan as soon as
possible to benefit people across the Straits.
Wang said the mainland and Taiwan should seize the historic
opportunity to strengthen their economic cooperation following
their entry into the World Trade Organization.
Both Chen and Wang, however, stressed that it was important that
Taipei accept the one-China principle and 1992 consensus before
cross-Straits talks could resume.
Chen said: "Whether cross-Straits talks can be resumed and the
stalemate in bilateral ties can be broken nonetheless depends on
the Taiwan authorities' attitude towards the one-China principle
and 1992 consensus."
Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian, of the pro-independence Democratic
Progressive Party, has refused to accept the one-China principle.
He denied the existence of the 1992 consensus after he took power
in May last year.
The one-China principle holds that there is only one China in the
world, that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan are both part of China
and that China's sovereignty and territorial integrity cannot be
separated.
(China Daily December
17, 2001)