Taiwan invited to HK handover with conditios<\/p>\n
BEIJING (Reuter): China issued a conditional invitation
\nyesterday to representatives from island arch-rival Taiwan to
\nattend a glittering ceremony for the return of the British colony
\nof Hong Kong to Beijing rule on June 30.<\/p>\n
Taiwan residents chosen to witness the historic end of 156
\nyears of colonial rule in Hong Kong would have to approve of the
\nterritory's return and to accept that Taiwan was part of China,
\nsaid Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang.<\/p>\n
\"We will invite Taiwan people to attend,\" Shen told a news
\nbriefing. \"But they must conform to the principle of 'One China'.<\/p>\n
\"Those invited must uphold China's resumption of sovereignty
\nover Hong Kong,\" he said, but gave no details of who was likely
\nto be chosen from Taiwan to join more than 4,000 guests at the
\n45-minute formal handover ceremony.<\/p>\n
Communist-ruled China has regarded Taiwan as a rebel province
\nsince 1949, when defeated Nationalist forces took refuge on the
\nisland after years of civil war.<\/p>\n
Beijing, which reserves the right to invade Taiwan if it ever
\ndeclares formal independence, has repeatedly demanded the
\nisland's leaders accept the principle of 'One China' and prove
\ntheir intention to eventually reunify with the mainland.<\/p>\n
While Taipei's Nationalist government is publicly committed to
\nreunification, Beijing accuses it of secretly favoring succession
\nand has broken off semi-official talks aimed at improving
\nrelations across the narrow Taiwan Strait.<\/p>\n
Shen said the guest list for the glitzy Hong Kong handover,
\nscheduled to begin at about 11.30 p.m. (1530 GMT) on June 30, had
\nbeen basically decided. He gave no details.<\/p>\n
Guests to the ceremony in the grand hall of Hong Kong's new
\nConvention and Exhibition will see the slow lowering of Britain's
\nUnion Jack flag and its colonial Hong Kong flag as midnight
\napproaches, Chinese state media have said.<\/p>\n
At the stroke of midnight, China's scarlet five-starred
\nnational flag and the flag of the new Hong Kong Special
\nAdministration Region will be raised.<\/p>\n
An official of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in
\nBeijing declined to comment on who would represent Taiwan at the
\nceremony or how they would be invited.<\/p>\n
\"This is currently a secret,\" the official said.<\/p>\n
A Beijing-backed newspaper in Hong Kong reported in March that
\nChina planned to invite the chairman of Taiwan's quasi-official
\nStraits Exchange Foundation, Koo Chen-fu.<\/p>\n
The foundation and its mainland counterpart, the Association
\nfor Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, have been used by Beijing
\nand Taipei as a way to negotiate without breaking their ban on
\ndirect official contacts.<\/p>\n
Even such semi-official talks stalled in June 1995 after
\nTaiwan President Lee Teng-hui enraged Beijing by making a
\nlandmark private visit to the United States, but tensions have
\neased recently.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Straits Exchange Foundation officials made a
\nrare direct sailing to mainland China to take custody of a man
\naccused of hijacking an airliner from the island in March.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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