Hopes for Taiwan-China peace surge after polls

Hopes for Taiwan-China peace surge after polls

TAIPEI (Reuter): Hopes for a peaceful new dawn across the
Taiwan Strait surged yesterday, with Taipei offering
reconciliation and Beijing announcing a full stop to weeks of
menacing war games.

The end on schedule of eight days of military exercises in the
northern Taiwan Strait halts 17 days of maneuvers which failed in
their aim of turning voters against President Lee Teng-hui, who
was elected in a landslide on Saturday.

China, unlike when it declared the end to previous exercises,
did not announce any future operations -- reducing the chances of
a confrontation between China and U.S. warships now off Taiwan.

Reacting to China's announcement, Kao Koong-lian of the
cabinet's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), called on China to use
this moment to embrace peaceful methods of developing bilateral
relations.

"We hope they can move toward the positive side and use peace
to develop the cross-straits relations," Kao, deputy head of the
MAC, told Reuters by telephone.

In an unexpected appeal, a top Taiwan official said China's
cherished dream of reunification could be achieved in just four
years -- so long as Beijing agreed to hold democratic
presidential elections.

"We want to tell the communist party that China will reunify
very soon. Four years from now we can reunify," Provincial
Governor James Soong said.

"As long as China can make up its mind four years from now to
elect the president of all China with all the Chinese in Taiwan
-- that will be the time of the real reunification of China," he
told a rally in southern Taiwan.

Soong, a close ally of president Lee, was reiterating Taipei's
long-held tenet that China can reunify only under a democratic
system. But it marked the first time a date had been officially
mooted.

China has made it clear since the crushing of pro-democracy
demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989 that it does not see
Western-style democracy as an option.

Lee's poll victory with 54 percent of the vote on Saturday and
the immediate moves of his government to ease the worst Taiwan
Strait crisis in decades soothed this island's financial markets.

Taiwan's stock index leapt to its highest level in over two
months and the Taiwan dollar surged to 27.160 against the U.S.
currency from 27.298 on Friday.

But the rallies petered out, leaving the stock index up just
0.02 percent at the close and the Taiwan dollar well off its
highs at 27.258 per dollar.

Although analysts saw a move toward replacing acrimony with
accommodation, they cautioned that neither China nor Taiwan have
compromised on any of the key issues which caused relations to
sour eight months ago.

The U.S. carriers Nimitz and Independence, escorted by battle
groups, are still thought to be in seas around Taiwan and U.S.-
China relations have yet to show signs of a recovery.

Taiwan's defense ministry said it was also watching closely to
see if China would begin new war games either in the Taiwan
Strait or at an inland location on the mainland.

Taiwan National Security Council director Yin Tsong-wen said
that he thought a new exercises would take place, this time
focusing on training suitable for operations in Taiwanese inland
areas.

"Their training will focus on Taiwan's special inland
situation. They will have little impact on international waters
and Taiwan," Yin told the state-run Central News Agency.

Analysts said that Beijing must have realized that its
intimidatory exercises have backfired after the man it has
vilified as a dictator, a "schemer" and a "double dealer" won
such a large popular endorsement.

But on Sunday, Premier Lien Chan called for step-by-step
negotiations to lead to an eventual leaders' summit at which a
peace agreement between the two sides would be signed.

China also said that the door to talks is open. But, in the
small print, trouble is still lurking.

Beijing insisted in remarks on Sunday that Lee should accept
he is just a local leader of a part of China. Taipei, however,
wants any summit to take place on the basis of equality.

Foreign business leaders in Taiwan yesterday expressed
confidence in the island's investment climate after its historic
presidential election, but urged Taipei to find a peaceful
solution to its tensions with China.

"Most investors are cautiously optimistic that President Lee
(Teng-hui) has a clear mandate and will make initiatives toward
bettering relations with China," said Christian Murck, president
of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (ACCT).

"But if tensions continue and people start to believe that in
medium and long terms military conflicts are possible, then
foreign investments would be affected," Murck said.