DPP seeks to alter course in its ties with Beijing

Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party formed a committee yesterday to chart a new direction for its ties with the mainland, a week after the leadership transition in Beijing.

But the new committee, headed by DPP chairman Su Tseng-chang, has been named the "China affairs committee" rather than the "cross-strait affairs committee".

Taiwanese pundits said it remained to be seen whether Beijing would be willing to step-up contacts with the DPP, given that the committee's name was bound to upset Beijing.

The pro-independence party held a central standing committee meeting yesterday to decide whether to form the committee.

Some party heavyweights at first questioned the need for such a committee, given that the DPP already had a "China affairs department to handle cross-strait issues. But after a long and heated debate, more than half of the party's standing committee members supported Su's proposal for a committee to co-ordinate all opinions within the party and work out cross-strait policy directions.

"In the face of the new situation in China, we cannot cope with all those changes with simply 'no change' and we must gather all wisdom to work out more innovative strategies to deal with this," Su told a press conference after the standing committee meeting.