Taiwan’s new President calls for China talks

TAIWAN: Taiwan’s new president Ma Ying-jeou called in his inaugural address Tuesday for a resumption of high-level talks with China, underscoring his priorities for his first four years in power.

Shortly after swearing the oath of presidential office, Ma said both sides should “reconcile and cease fire” to mend their own fragile relationship and bolster regional stability.

Ma, a Harvard-educated former Taipei mayor, succeeds Chen Shui-bian, whose pro-independence rhetoric during eight years in power irked not only Beijing but also the United States for the way it spiked regional tensions.

“Taiwan and China in 1992 reached a guideline for bilateral talks — that each side can interpret the term ‘One China’ in its own way,” Ma said in his address.

“I hope we can resume dialogue as soon as possible on the 1992 consensus,” added Ma, who at 57 is only Taiwan’s third democratically elected leader.

Taiwan’s complex relationship with China has been its defining issue since it split from the mainland in 1949 after a civil war.

China still claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to invade if it proclaims its independence, leaving the self-ruled island in a limbo of de facto but undeclared nationhood.

The two sides held landmark talks in 1993 under a consensus which allowed them to meet while putting the sovereignty issue to one side. However, China called off follow-up talks in protest at a 1995 US visit by Taiwan’s then president, which Beijing saw as a move toward independence, and there have been no such contacts since.

Ma urged both sides to “make the best use of this historic chance to create a new chapter of peace and prosperity.”

“Seeking cross-strait peace and maintaining regional stability is our goal and Taiwan will strive to become a peacemaker in the world,” he added, while reaffirming a campaign promise not to discuss reunification with China.

Taipel, Tuesday, AFP