BEIJING and Taipei yesterday showed
their common desire to reopen talks when they paid
their last respects to Taiwan's chief cross-strait
negotiator, Mr Koo Chen-fu.
China showed its willingness to
do so by sending two senior officials from the
Cabinet-level Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) to
attend Mr Koo's funeral in Taipei yesterday.
Mr Sun Yafu and Mr Li Yafei, who
are TAO deputy director and bureau chief respectively,
are the highest-ranking Chinese officials to set
foot in Taiwan since 1999.
Although they deliberately kept
a low profile, their visit was regarded widely
as a strong gesture of goodwill from Beijing.
Taipei yesterday reciprocated
by extending an invitation to Mr Wang Daohan, Mr
Koo's Chinese counterpart, to visit the island.
Although Taiwan has repeatedly
said it would welcome a visit by Mr Wang, this
is the first time that President Chen Shui-bian
has issued the invitation personally.
However, in the official eulogy
he delivered at Mr Koo's memorial service yesterday,
Mr Chen did not mention the consensus on ""one
China'' which Mr Koo and Mr Wang hammered out at
a 1992 meeting in Hong Kong.
To Beijing, that consensus was
Mr Koo's greatest contribution and most important
legacy, for it culminated in the 1993 landmark
cross-strait talks in Singapore.
It was this achievement that prompted
the Chinese leadership to send such a senior delegation
to attend Mr Koo's funeral.
During his brief stay in Taipei,
Mr Sun twice reminded the Taiwanese of this contribution
to cross-strait relations.
In China's view, a eulogy on Mr
Koo without mentioning the consensus was not a
careless omission, but a indication of the
Taiwanese government's refusal to recognise such an agreement.
That was somewhat disappointing
to Beijing.
Although the TAO insisted that
the visit by Messrs Sun and Li was strictly personal
to mourn Mr Koo on Mr Wang's behalf yet their official
capacity authorised them to jumpstart cross-strait
talks if necessary.
The two men had been involved
in various levels of cross-strait dialogue that
was initiated by Mr Koo and Mr Wang.
According to Professor Xu Bodong,
director of the Taiwan Studies Institute of Beijing
Union University, the Chinese side had initially
thought of sending Mr Tang Shubei, a retired TAO
vice-director, so as to downplay the political
connotation of such a visit.
However, they later decided to
send two senior serving officials so that they
could reopen cross-strait dialogue immediately
if Mr Chen made some positive references to the ""1992
consensus'' a precondition China has set for the
resumption of talks.
Prof Xu, who was privy to China's
cross-strait policymaking process, said Beijing
wanted to signal its readiness to reopen talks
anytime if the necessary conditions were in place.
He disclosed that Mr Sun and Mr
Li were even prepared to extend their stay in Taipei
should Mr Chen make ""the appropriate
overture''.
The Taiwanese leader said in his
National Day speech last year that he was willing
to resume dialogue with Beijing ""on
the model of the 1992 Hong Kong meeting''.
But he has repeatedly denied that
a consensus was reached at that meeting.
Prof Xu suggested that an appropriate
overture would be to rephrase it to ""the
1992 consensus on one China''.
But that did not happen, and the
two Chinese officials left Taipei yesterday as
scheduled.
However, remarks made by Mr Sun
prior to their departure hinted that the door remained
open for the resumption of cross-strait talks.
""It is our desire to
promote peaceful and stable cross-stra it relations,''
Mr Sun said at Taipei airport yesterday.
""After all these years,
we increasingly feel that further bilateral exchanges
are needed in order to promote cross-strait
relations so that it can develop in the right direction.''
He promised to take back what
he saw, heard and felt and report them to Mr Wang.
The positive tone showed he did
not want to close the door to cross-strait dialogue
even though Mr Chen evaded the ""1992
consensus'' on one China.
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