Taiwan president-elect for talks with Beijing

TAIPEI, MARCH 21: Taiwan's president-elect Chen Shui-bian, in his first response to China's call that Taipei return to the 'one China poli...

TAIPEI, MARCH 21: Taiwan’s president-elect Chen Shui-bian, in his first response to China’s call that Taipei return to the ‘one China policy,’ said on Monday that he is willing to discuss the policy with Beijing.

"I am willing to discuss any subject, including the ‘one China policy,’ with Beijing, so long as ‘one China’ is not a principle or pre-condition for holding talks," Chen said.

Chen made the remark while meeting with Chang Jung-fa, Chen’s new cabinet adviser and owner of the Evergreen Marine Group. After winning the election on Saturday, Chen said he and his vice-president Lu Hsiu-lien were willing to take a ‘reconciliation and communication trip’ to China before he is sworn in on May 20.

But China’s Taiwan experts sniffed at his offer, saying Beijing needs to observe him for a long time – particularly what he says about the ‘one China policy’ in his inauguration speech – before making a judgement on him. Beijing insists there is one China and Taiwan is a Chinese province.

Taiwan, seat of the exiled Chinese nationalist government since 1949, claims China’s situation is like that of the former East and West German states as well as North and South Korea – a nation divided by civil war. At a meeting in Hong Kong in 1992, Beijing and Taipei negotiators agreed that each side could keep its own interpretation of what is one China. So while Beijing claims there is one China and Taiwan is part of China, Taipei says while there is a historically and culturally one China, it is a divided country ruled by two governments.