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KMT and CCP move closer after landmark meeting
2000-11-23
BEIJING - The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT), enemies since a civil war half a century ago, vowed Thursday to build closer ties in high-level talks here, KMT officials told AFP.KMT vice chairman Wu Po-hsiung, the most senior KMT official to visit mainland China since the end of the war in 1949, met with Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen, said his spokesman. The meeting came as the KMT together with other political parties in Taiwan is pushing for the impeachment of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian over the cancellation of a nuclear power plant. Chen, from the opposition pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, has infuriated Beijing by refusing to embrace its "One China" policy, accepting Taiwan is part of Chinese territory. Wu's spokesman Li Qingping said Qian and Wu agreed the KMT and CCP should begin holding high-level academic forums to discuss cross-straits relations. Frequent exchanges between the KMT's think tank, the National Development Foundation, and Chinese government think tanks will be held, Li said. "Through academic research, we will present our views and maybe we can have a consensus about some issues which we can then deliver to both governments," Li said. The nationalist KMT forces fled the mainland for Taiwan following their defeat by the Communists in the civil war, but despite 51 years of de facto independent rule Beijing considers the island a breakaway province. China repeatedly warns it will invade the island if it moves towards independence or even rebuffs talks on reunification. Since Chen won March elections in Taiwan, breaking the KMT's 50-year hold on power, cross-Strait dialogue has ground to a halt as Chen has refused to accept Beijing's demand to recognise the "One China" principle. In the past dialogue has been channeled through the Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation and mainland-based Association for Relations Across Taiwan Straits (ARATS). Qian on Thursday also agreed to Wu's suggestion that a "brother city" relationship should be established between the eastern Chinese port of Shanghai and Taipei by next year, Li said. The term "sister city" was not used because it generally refers to relations between cities from two different countries, Li said, whereas China considers Taiwan a province. The decision must be approved by the Taipei city council, Li said. In a meeting Wednesday with Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's cabinet, the State Council, Chen told Wu there would be no peace in the Taiwan Straits if Taiwan declared independence, Li said. He added that both Qian and Chen had kept up with the recent impeachment proceedings in Taiwan but that neither made any comment about it. Wu insists his visit to mainland China was aimed at attending a conference on the ethnic Hakka clan, held in southern Fujian province earlier this week. He is expected to be in China until the Tuesday and has said he hoped to meet President Jiang Zemin. Since Chen's victory, Beijing has been laying out the red carpet for Chen's opponents. The move is interpreted by analysts as an attempt to isolate Chen and pressure him into accepting the "one China" principle.
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