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.