Hello Maurice, as we were discussing, about inevitability, strands of energy, sense of the Force, and way of moolah:
quote.bloomberg.com
Taiwan's President Chen Calls for Talks With China (Update1)
May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian called for talks with China to reconcile differences and ease more than a half-century of tensions that have blocked direct flights, slowed investment and isolated the island internationally.
His main opposition rival, Nationalist Party leader Lien Chan, wrapping up an historic trip to China, said today in Shanghai that Taiwan must seize the opportunity for reconciliation and seek its prosperity in China's economic boom.
Ending more than a half century of acrimony will be easier said than done unless the island's ruling party drops aspirations toward independence and accepts Chinese sovereignty, analysts said. No policy shifts have been announced yet.
Chen has to seek reconciliation ``because that is what the majority of people in Taiwan want,'' said Chen Yu-chun, who teaches U.S. and Chinese studies at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei. ``Without integration with China, Taiwan's economy may be ruined in five years.''
Chen said he will propose setting up a communication channel with China, Taiwan's China News Agency said, citing comments Chen made today on a visit to the Marshall Islands. The report didn't elaborate or say if the plan will be contained in a message Chen said he's sending to Chinese leaders this week.
`Taiwan's Nixon'
``Chen may want to be Taiwan's Nixon,'' Philip Yang, professor of political science at National Taiwan University said of the possibility of a Chen visit to China. ``Chen wants to get the initiative back on China and may not exclude the possibility of improving ties on non-political issues.''
Chen, 54, is visiting the Marshall Islands and two other small Pacific Ocean nations that are among the 25 countries in the world still maintaining diplomatic ties with Taiwan. The visit coincides with the tail-end of Lien weeklong trip to China, the highest-ranking Taiwan politician to visit the mainland since both sides split in 1949.
Both men are considered lame ducks in Taiwan politics. Chen, who won by 30,000 of 13 million votes cast in the 2004 election, can't run again when his current term expires in 2008. Lien at 68 is expected to step aside as his party's standard- bearer after losing two presidential elections.
``Both sides are masters of position and repositioning,'' said Robert Broadfoot, managing director of Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. in Hong Kong. ``It's a new move on this chess board. The Nationalists are moving one of back pieces and that may force Chen to move a back piece. Ninety percent of what these politicians do is for their domestic audience.''
Go-Between
Chen, whose ruling Democratic Progressive Party has run afoul of China with its calls for Taiwan independence, said yesterday he will send a message to China's leaders when a second opposition leader, People First Party leader James Soong, visits China for the first time this week. He didn't disclose what the message will convey.
Chen's offer in 2000 to hold a summit with Chinese leaders was snubbed because he refused to endorse the ``one-China'' policy. The president said yesterday that China must deal with him, as the island's elected leader, if it wants to normalize relations.
Chen's newest initiative came as Lien's trip to China has been grabbing the media limelight in Taiwan and winning public support in opinion polls. The image of Lien's walking down a red carpet in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on April 29 to shake hands with Chinese President Hu Jintao probably will stand out as a major event in modern Chinese history.
``China has become the world's factory and the world's market,'' Lien told reporters in Shanghai today on the last leg of his trip. ``We must face this reality. The world's major countries have entered China to grab market share and opportunity.''
Growth Spurt
China is the world's fastest-expanding major economy. Growth of 9.5 percent in 2004 and in the first quarter was the fastest in eight years.
Taiwan businesses haven't been slow the grasp the opportunities that lie across 90 miles of waterway. They already have more than $100 billion invested in China, the island's biggest trading partner and largest export market.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's biggest contract chipmaker, and other Taiwan technology companies are seeking wider access to China, where labor costs are cheaper, customers are closer and overseas rivals are expanding. Taiwan businessmen want the government to accelerate the approval process that vets their investments in China.
Chen's government slowed those approvals in the first quarter, in retaliation for China's enacting a law authorizing military force if the island declares separate statehood. Taiwan's corporate investment in China in the first quarter fell for the first time in five years, dropping 6.6 percent to $1.21 billion.
Dividing Issue
The issue of sovereignty over Taiwan has split the two sides since 1949, when Nationalist troops lost a civil war to Mao Zedong's Communist forces and fled to the island. China claims Taiwan in a renegade province that must be reunited with the mainland.
Two newspaper polls published in Taipei over the weekend showed the public supports reconciliation.
A United Daily News survey, conducted on April 29 after Hu met Lien, found 56 percent of 859 respondents believe the talks will foster cross-Strait peace. Thirty-one percent said they feel tensions with China are easing, the highest percentage in seven years, the Taipei-based paper said. The poll had a three percent margin of error.
Chen may have public support for peace overtures but selling it to his party, which rose to prominence as the champion of an independent Taiwan, may be difficult.
``The president has made a U-turn on China policy,'' Democratic Progressive lawmaker said in a television interview. ``If the president has new ideas, he has to convince his colleagues in the party. He can't just go ahead and do it.''
To contact the reporter on this story:
Koh Chin Ling in Shanghai at at ckoh2@bloomberg.net
Yu-huay Sun in Taipei at at ysun7@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 2, 2005 02:32 EDT
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