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.