Taiwan tones down talk after VP's Indonesia trip

Taiwan tones down talk after VP's Indonesia trip

Benjamin Kang Lim, Reuters, Taipei

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian said on Tuesday the island had no intention of engaging China in fruitless confrontation, toning down polemical talk after his deputy ruffled Beijing's feathers by visiting Indonesia.

Vice-President Annette Lu declared her four-day Indonesia trip a setback for Beijing, prompting media speculation that Taipei had switched from defensive to offensive diplomacy as proposed by Chen's top security aide.

Chiou I-jen, secretary-general of the National Security Council, told a group of Taiwan diplomats in a recent closed-door session the island should light diplomatic fires so that "the flames of battle would be raging everywhere".

In an apparent bid to avoid further riling China, President Chen told a group of visiting Caribbean dignitaries: "We have no intention of engaging Communist China in a zero sum contest."

"We are more willing to engage in good cross-strait communication on the basis of reciprocity, mutual benefit, reason and dignity," Chen said.

The president infuriated China this month when he said that holding a referendum on formal Taiwan independence from China was a "basic human right" and there was "one country on each side" of the Taiwan Strait.

"We should use reason and wisdom to overcome differences and create a win-win situation," said Chen, who has been forced into damage control and has not repeated his "one country on each side" comment in public since.

Taipei and Beijing, diplomatic and military rivals since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, have seen their economies become increasingly intertwined in recent years with Taiwan investors pouring up to US$100 billion into China.

Lu, reviled by Beijing for her pro-independence views, has trumpeted her Indonesia trip a victory for Taipei in what she described as "a diplomatic battle without the sound of gunfire".

Beijing, which vows to attack the democratic island of 23 million if it declares independence, called her trip a farce.

China insists that Taiwan is a renegade province not entitled to diplomatic recognition by any country and complains bitterly over visits by Taiwan officials to countries with which Beijing has ties.

Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Chang Siao-yue said Chiou's call for the island to light diplomatic fires everywhere was his personal view and not official policy.

"Chiou said when lighting diplomatic fires everywhere, it should be done with finesse and prudence," Chang said by telephone. She did not elaborate.

Analysts expect Taiwan to intensify attempts to break China's diplomatic stranglghold in the run-up to mayoral elections in the island's two largest cities in December.

"It may not be government policy, but the government is likely to continue in that direction," said Chu Hsin-min, a professor of diplomacy at National Chengchi University.

"The ruling party has more to gain than lose," Chu said, adding that if the island's bid to break out of isolation failed, it could blame China and fan the flames of ethnic antagonism.

The island's main opposition Nationalist Party traces its roots to the mainland and favors reunification with a democratic China. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) advocates independence.

"Rising cross-strait tension is good for the DPP in elections, but not good for the island's economic development," Chu said. "Will the international community see Taiwan as a peacemaker or a troublemaker?"