Beijing opens door to direct links with Taipei

Beijing opens door to direct links with Taipei

BEIJING (Agencies): Beijing opened the door to historic direct
links with Taiwan on Thursday by grudgingly accepting Taipei's
plan for limited exchanges between its offshore islands and the
mainland.

Taipei welcomed the news, which represents a rare sign of
progress in ties across the Taiwan Strait that have been mired in
acrimony and suspicion since the election this year of Taiwan
President Chen Shui-bian.

Beijing has been pressing for full trade, transport and postal
exchanges -- the so-called "three links".

China's state news agency quoted an official in coastal Fujian
province as saying the Taiwan plan did not go far enough and
"indicates that the Taiwan authorities lack sincerity and
goodwill in realizing direct services".

Nevertheless, the official with the Fujian Taiwan Affairs
Office said "the mainland is willing to help". A Chinese foreign
ministry official confirmed that the Xinhua report expressed
Beijing's official position.

Taiwan's cabinet this month approved regulations dropping a
ban lasting more than five decades on direct contacts with China.

Taiwan now requires all exchanges to go through third
countries, although smugglers from both sides do a roaring trade
in the Taiwan Strait, and Taiwan fishermen regularly put ashore
on the mainland.

In that sense, the Taiwan move is largely symbolic since it
simply legalizes exchanges that are already flourishing.

The Taiwan cabinet sanctioned what has been dubbed "mini three
links" between the heavily-fortified islands of Quemoy and Matsu,
and Fujian.

It approved a plan by Quemoy county commissioner Chen Shui-
tsai to lead a group of 192 officials and reporters to Xiamen on
Jan. 1.

The group hopes to accompany back former Quemoy residents
stranded on the mainland since 1949.

Meanwhile, China opposed on Thursday a reported plan by France
and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to allow their pilots to fly
Taiwanese fighter jets in the island's first military pilot
exchange program in two decades.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said Beijing was
concerned about the reports from Taipei and urged France and the
UAE to "refrain from doing things that will interfere in China's
internal affairs and encroach on China's sovereignty."

She said China was "firmly opposed to the exchanges of any
official nature between Taiwan and countries that have diplomatic
relations with China."

She added Beijing was also against the signing of agreements
between Taiwan and such countries, especially military
agreements.

On the same day, a group of Taiwan pilgrims is due to sail
from Matsu to Fuzhou to visit a temple. The new Taiwan rules will
also allow up to 700 Chinese residents to apply to visit Quemoy
and Matsu at any one time and to stay for up to seven days.

The deputy chairman of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, John
Deng, reacting to the Xinhua report, said: "If this is true, of
course we think it's a very good development."

Taiwan officials have said wider links would depend on China's
willingness to resume a high-level dialogue frozen since mid-1999
after then Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui angered Beijing by
calling ties between the two governments "special state-to-state
relations".

China has regarded Taiwan as a breakaway province since a 1949
civil war split and has threatened to attack if the island
declares independence.

"We hope there can be a resumption of talks," said Deng,
speaking on Quemoy where he is temporarily based to oversee the
direct travel.

Xinhua quoted the official as calling on non-governmental
organizations in Quemoy and Matsu, and the Chinese cities of
Fuzhou and Xiamen, "to facilitate the two-way personnel and trade
exchange across the strait and do everything possible to simplify
related procedures".

Beijing appears eager to avoid presenting the limited
exchanges as any kind of breakthrough, thus handing a victory to
Chen.

It may be calculating that small-scale legalized trade and
travel across the Taiwan Strait will lead to unstoppable demands
in Taiwan for a broader opening.

Taiwan investors have pumped more than US$40 billion into
mainland China and are clamoring for direct links. Most now
shuttle to their factories in China through Hong Kong, a time-
wasting journey that adds to their costs.

Taiwan Premier Chang Chun-hsiung had urged Beijing to accept
limited exchanges during a tour of Quemoy this week. "It's a
small step but it's an important starting point to ease more than
half a century of confrontation," Chang said.

He said the opening was an attempt to break the ice with
China, which is deeply suspicious of Chen because of his pro-
independence past. Beijing refuses to deal with Chen unless he
embraces the "one China" principle. Chen has resisted lest it
commit Taiwan to unification.