China's Li Peng says no objection to Indonesia-Taiwan trade ties
China's Li Peng says no objection to Indonesia-Taiwan trade ties
Agence France-Presse, Jakarta
Chinese number two Li Peng on Monday said Beijing has no
objection to trade ties between Indonesia and Taiwan, a senior
Indonesian official said.
"Li Peng also understands that there are trade ties between
Taipei and Jakarta. He aired no objection and said go ahead with
the trade, business and economic ties, but stick to the 'one
China policy'," Amien Rais, the chairman of the People's
Consulative Assembly who is Li's host here, told journalists
after meeting the head of China's parliament.
Beijing's "one China policy" states there is only one China
and that Taiwan is part of it, although the two sides have been
separated since the end of a civil war in 1949.
Amien said the subject of the recent unofficial visit by
Taiwan Vice President Annette Lu, whose trip to Bali and Jakarta
last month drew the ire of Beijing, was not touched on during his
talks with Li.
Indonesia does not recognize Taiwan and Lu was reportedly
barred from entering Jakarta. She was forced to fly to Bali amid
pressure from Beijing, which views Taiwan as part of its
territory.
Li, who is second behind President Jiang Zemin in the Chinese
Communist Party hierarchy, is scheduled to meet with deputy
chairman of the House of Representatives (DPR) Tosari Wijaya and
several leading MPs at his hotel before dining at the summer
palace in nearby Bogor.
DPR chairman Akbar Tandjung, who was last week sentenced to
three years in jail for graft, is currently on a visit to
Vietnam. Tanjung remains free pending his appeal.
Li, who is accompanied by his wife Zhu Lin, was scheduled to
lunch with Vice President Hamzah Haz, visit the national museum
and dine with businessmen on Tuesday.
Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri is on an overseas
trip.
Li will leave Jakarta early on Wednesday for Surabaya, the
second largest Indonesian city and an industrial center in East
Java, where he will visit a plastics factory and a state
petrochemicals facility.
He will meet with local businessmen and leading members of the
local Chinese community there before flying to Manila.
He has already visited Thailand and is scheduled to visit
Australia after the Philippines.
Li visited Indonesia as premier in 1990 to officially restore
diplomatic ties that were severed in 1966 following an abortive
coup in Jakarta the previous year.
The coup was blamed at the time on the communist party.
Li, now 73, made his second visit as premier in 1993.
He is forecast to be among a group of elderly leaders,
possibly including President Jiang, who will step down at a major
Chinese Communist Party conference beginning on November 8.