China woos oppn leaders to throw open Taiwan gates

But the momentum towards full trade, transport and postal connections has increased after lawmakers from Taiwan’s Nationalist and New parties on a visit to China called for full links and Beijing on Saturday softened its preconditions for such a move.

In what state media called a major goodwill gesture, a top Chinese official said Beijing would accept the three links if they were "conducted as internal affairs within one country".

China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, had previously insisted Chen first explicitly accept the Principle that Taiwan and the mainland are part of a single China–a concession he has been unwilling to make.

Chen is also under pressure from Taiwan business leaders who have ploughed billions of dollars of investment into mainland China but must still conduct travel and trade via a third place, usually Hong Kong.

In the meanwhile, Chen’s government says it will consider expanding the links in the future but wants further concessions from Beijing.

“The big three links are a necessary element to raising Taiwan’s economic competitiveness,” legislator Hung Chi-chang of Chen’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said in a panel discussion on local television.

Our government is becoming more practical on cross-straitmatters.

But Beijing should be more flexible on its conditions for opening direct links, he added.

China has long demanded three links in the hope it will help lead to Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland, from which it was split at the end of a bloody civil war in 1949.

Taiwan, apparently fearing full-blown links would allow Communist China to launch a creeping takeover of the island, has kept tight control of the links, allowing only Taiwan ships to cross the Strait legally.

But Beijing has successfully increased the impetus for full links by courting Taiwan’s opposition parties and business leaders while ignoring Chen and his demands.

That was clearly illustrated by the lawmakers’ visit to Beijing where they met top Chinese officials including Vice Premier Qian Qichen on Friday.

The official China Daily billed the talks as "a major effort to push ahead with the three direct links between both sides of the Taiwan Strait" and hailed the opposition groups as "pro-unification party delegations".

By contrast, Beijing only grudgingly accepted Chen’s opening of direct links to the mainland from nearby Taiwan-held islands Matsu and Quemoy and state media paid it scant attention.

Although the lawmakers had no authority to negotiate, they met Chinese officials in charge of aviation, trade, and posts and telecommunications.

Fung Hu-hsiang, who led the New Party delegation, quoted transport officials as saying that under the three links Taiwan airlines could set up shop in the mainland through provincial representative offices and would be allowed to fly to any city.

Ships crossing the Taiwan Strait would not be required to fly flags, Taiwan’s two top daily newspapers quoted Fung as saying.

Fung arrived in Shanghai on Sunday and will hold talks with municipal officials, including the mayor, on Monday.

“We will discuss matters of trade and economy… how Shanghai and Taiwan might cooperate,” Fung told Reuters. We will also be visiting the airport and Port… to see how they can prepare for the three links."

Such detailed dialogue constrasts starkly with the official stalemate between Taipei and Beijing over the definition of the cross-Strait relationship.

Chen, whose DPP advocates Taiwan independence, has not heeded Beijing’s call to accept the "one China principle" and says reunification with the mainland is not the island’s only option.