TAIWAN'S President Lee Teng-hui marked the New Year yesterday by promising to work for a breakthrough in relations with China . . . but he also pledged to maintain efforts to raise Taiwan's international status.
Mr Lee's presidential jet-setting in 1995, particularly his trip to the United States in the summer, provoked bitter complaints from Beijing. And his comments yesterday came as China's President Jiang Zemin vowed in a New Year address to the nation to 'eliminate all obstacles' to reunification.
Mr Lee hoped to make 1996 'a year for further breakthroughs and development in relations between Taiwan and mainland China, and a year to expand Taiwan's international presence'.
For the first time, he said, there were common themes between Mr Jiang's 'eight-point reunification initiative' launched last January and his own six-point statement on cross-strait relations last April.
The two documents 'should constitute a bridge for the promotion of future cross-strait relations and the basis for both sides to build on common ground amid their differences'.
Mr Lee also called for more 'pragmatic actions to promote genuine reconciliation' and to foster a 'favourable climate and situation for unification'.
But he refused to accede to Beijing's demands that Taiwan stopped its diplomatic efforts to gain wider international recognition.
