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Taiwan needs to keep pushing for China talks: Ma
(China Post Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou in London said Taiwan needed to continually push for talks with China despite the Communist power's military threat, saying it was the only way to end the two rivals' over half-century-long diplomatic standoff.
In an oblique attack on the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP's) stance of isolating itself from China because of its military threats, Ma told British and Taiwanese reporters talks were the only way to achieve a breakthrough in relations.
"Even though there are around 700 ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan, efforts in seeking permanent peace should never cease ... and talks should not be cut off," Ma, the Kuomintang (KMT) chairman said, according to Chinese language reports.
Ma, who is also the mayor of Taipei, said agreements signed between former KMT chairman Lien Chan and Chinese President Hu Jintao last year during Lien's landmark visit to the mainland could be used as a basis to end the diplomatic freeze. Ma termed the agreements, which included setting up a mechanism for mutual military trust, "peace agreements", despite opposition to Lien's unauthorized trip from independence groups in Taiwan.
The KMT leader said negotiations between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War could be used as an example for Taiwan and China to follow. He said neither superpower dropped talks because the other one acquired new weapons.
"In other words, both sides of the Taiwan Strait should seek common points between them to help defuse tension rather than trading excuses," he said. But, in an apparent contradiction to these comments, Ma also agreed with a Taiwanese student who said Taipei should bargain with Beijing by refusing to talk to China unless it dropped its missile threat.
Ma told the student during a seminar at Britain's prestigious Cambridge University that he agreed with the idea because "no one likes living under the threat of military intimidation."
Ma on his five-European-nation tour is also is giving a speech at Britain's renowned London School of Economics on a new theory of cross-strait relations termed the "2P and 3C" theory. According to the theory, Taiwan and China will pass through three phases -- confrontation, conciliation and cooperation -- to achieve peace and prosperity.
His remarks have already generated considerable controversy back in Taiwan.
Legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng, a senior KMT member and an old rival of Ma's, voiced support for the idea of exchanging talks in return for China ending its missile threat.
"This is an important issue that the two sides can talk about," Wang said.
But DPP whip, lawmaker Chen Chin-jun, accused Ma of making irresponsible paradoxical remarks to cheat voters with an eye to winning the 2008 presidential election.
The hard line pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) also slammed Ma's remarks, saying the KMT leader believed reunification with the mainland was Taiwan's only option for the future.
"Taiwan's future is not up to people from "both sides" of the Taiwan Strait to decide and should be determined by the island's 23 million people through a referendum," Huang said.
Huang said Ma's "3Cs" -- confrontation, conciliation and cooperation would end up with one "S" -- surrender.
But the director of the People First Party policy making center Chang Hsiao-yao said he disagreed with the idea of exchanging talks for missiles.
Chang said talks regardless of China's threatening actions were the only way to defuse tensions.
"Not talking if China does not remove its missiles is a past tactic of the DPP's created for domestic political considerations," he said.
"Avoiding contact with the other side...will only create a cross-strait stalemate," he said.
In related reports, a senior KMT member slammed President Chen Shui-bian's calls to tighten trade and economic policies with China.
"President Chen's 'active management, effective opening' China investment policy will drive Taiwan to the sidelines of the world stage," KMT vice chairman P.K. Chiang was quoted by Chinese language reports as saying in Manila.
He warned that Taiwan companies, in particular those in the service sector, will lose business opportunities in the Chinese market to competitors from Europe, Japan, the United States and South Korea if the government continues to postpone a full opening to China.
Chiang said the KMT would do its best to improve the situation but warned that Taiwan companies could face an even more difficult business environment after the "ASEAN Plus Three" free trade agreements take effect.
After the "ASEAN Plus Three" trade bloc takes effect, products from the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China, Japan and South Korea will enjoy zero tariff treatment among them. Taiwan is not a member.
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