http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/03/AR2005050301796_2.html
Taiwan Nationalist Cites 'Consensus' With Chinese on Ending
Hostilities
The Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 4, 2005; Page A01
By Peter S. Goodman
SHANGHAI, May 3 -- The leader of Taiwan's opposition Nationalist
Party, wrapping up a historic visit to mainland China, said he had
achieved a "fundamental consensus" with the country's Communist
Party leadership to end hostilities that have enveloped the Taiwan
Strait for more than half a century.
Lien Chan, head of the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, which
ruled China until it fled to Taiwan in 1949 to escape victorious
Communist forces, said Tuesday in an interview with The Washington
Post that the channel he opened puts pressure on Taiwan's
pro-independence president to seek a compromise with China. Lien,
68, also said his eight-day visit had unleashed a process of
engagement that holds out the promise of peace, stability and
increased trade.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, right, meets with Taiwanese opposition
leader Lien Chan, the first Nationalist Party figure to visit the
mainland since 1949. (By Claro Cortes Iv -- Reuters)
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"It has presented to our people a viable alternative, a viable
choice in our relations with mainland China," Lien said. "Isn't
this the time for dialogue? Isn't this the general wishes of the
people around the world?"
Lien's tour, which ended after a visit to this city, marked the
first time that a Nationalist leader had stepped on mainland
Chinese soil since the defeat of the Kuomintang leader Chiang
Kai-shek at the hands of the Communists, who have governed since.
He visited the former Nationalist capital in Nanjing and his
birthplace in the city of Xian.
In a moment televised live on both sides of the strait, Lien shook
hands Friday with President Hu Jintao, who controls a military that
still points hundreds of missiles at Taiwan. Lien and Hu then
unveiled a communique in which their two parties -- former sworn
enemies -- vowed to seek a formal end to hostilities and increase
economic ties.
On Monday in Shanghai, China's gleaming commercial capital, Lien
met with Taiwanese businesspeople responsible for some of the
island's estimated $70 billion in mainland investments, promising
to try to forge a common market.
But as Lien departed on Tuesday, he confronted questions about
whether the good feelings surrounding his visit could be parlayed
into a harmonious future. It was unclear whether his trip had
sufficiently altered politics on Taiwan to clear the way for talks
between President Chen Shui-bian and leaders in Beijing.
Lien declined in the interview to offer an opinion on whether
Taiwan should reunify with China, saying the Nationalists favor
leaving the question to future generations. "We as a party have to
follow the main current of Taiwan, and the maintenance of status
quo commands the support of the majority," he said.
In a clear sign of the effect of Lien's visit, the Taiwanese
president on Tuesday invited Hu to visit the island. China rejected
the invitation but signaled a desire to continue engagement with
Taiwan, announcing that it would lift restrictions on mainland
tourists visiting the island and scrap tariffs on shipments of
certain fruits. China also promised to deliver a pair of giant
pandas to Taiwan as a goodwill gesture.
But China also underscored that a major stumbling block between the
two sides remained in force: At a news conference in Beijing, Maj.
Gen. Wang Zaixi, vice chairman of China's policymaking Taiwan
Affairs Office, said Communist leaders would not engage in talks
with Taiwan's government until it acknowledged that the island is
part of China. Chen has steadfastly rejected that condition,
asserting that it would violate Taiwan's sovereignty.
Lien's visit was read widely as an attempt to capitalize on growing
impatience among Taiwan's citizens with the government's stance
toward China. Even before Tuesday's flurry of overtures, the visit
forced Chen to alter his approach: On Sunday, after the communique
was issued, Chen told reporters that he was willing to hold
official talks with China aimed at formal reconciliation.
In Tuesday's interview, Lien praised Chen for holding open the
possibility of cross-strait talks. "I think he showed some
goodwill," Lien said. But he also challenged the notion that
realizing the goals of the communique depended on Chen's assent,
pointing to China's scrapping of tariffs and travel restrictions as
evidence. "Some can be done unilaterally, and some can be done by
people, by the private sector," he said.
Recent public opinion polls in Taiwan have shown that a majority of
people approved of Lien's visit and the prospect of improved
relations with China. Still, Lien and his party face the risk that
Chen and Taiwan independence activists could paint his visit as a
sign that he has compromised the island's sovereignty for political
gain.
"It's a democratic society," Lien said, dismissing such concerns.
"You've got to have voices from different perspectives."
Chinese President Hu Jintao, right, meets with Taiwanese opposition
leader Lien Chan, the first Nationalist Party figure to visit the
mainland since 1949. (By Claro Cortes Iv -- Reuters)
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The communique he struck with China reaffirms a 1992 agreement
between the two sides that they both acknowledge that the mainland
and Taiwan are part of "one China," while agreeing to disagree
about what that means. That understanding disintegrated in 1999, as
then-President Lee Teng-hui characterized his dealings with China
as "a special state-to-state relationship." Relations have been at
a stalemate since then.
Lien described his journey here as personal as much as political.
He spent his first eight years in mainland China before his father,
a Nationalist official, took him back to his native Taiwan at the
end of World War II as the vanquished Japanese surrendered the
island. Once the Communists took power, the Taiwan-mainland divide
was sealed. On his visit to Xian, Lien visited the tomb of his
grandmother for the first time in 60 years, voicing an apology to
her for the long absence. He spoke in both the Taiwanese dialect
and Mandarin, the Chinese national language.
In Beijing, he said he was touched by a personal overture from Hu,
who gave him letters that Lien's father had sent to the Nationalist
government in Nanjing in 1914 seeking official Chinese citizenship
at a time when Taiwan was separated from China and ruled by
Japan.
Lien's visit to Shanghai may have presented the most vivid reminder
of how much has changed. On Monday, he met with one of China's
principal negotiators with Taiwan, Wang Daohan, inside the old
Jinjiang Hotel, a marble-and-brick building where in 1972 President
Richard M. Nixon signed the Shanghai Communique, setting in motion
the process under which the United States transferred diplomatic
recognition of China from the Nationalists on Taiwan to the
Communists in Beijing.
Six decades had passed since Lien lived in Shanghai. In those days,
the city was confined to the west bank of the Huangpu River, while
the east bank, Pudong, was a muddy fishing village. Today, Pudong
is the center of the city's financial district, a riot of soaring
towers of glass and steel. This was the scene visible from the
28th-story hotel suite in which Lien sat for the interview.
He did not, however, show much interest in the past. "History is
history, and you can do nothing about it," he said. "But the future
is something that you can do something about."
