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Beijing rejects top negotiator

Jason Blatt

TAIWANESE officials said yesterday they were disappointed at Beijing's apparent rejection of Taipei's suggestion it send the island's top cross-strait negotiator to the mainland next month for a seminar.

The Straits Exchange Foundation, which acts as Taipei's intermediary with Beijing in the absence of formal cross-strait ties, said it had yet to receive formal notification from its mainland counterpart on its suggestion it send its chairman, Koo Chen-fu , to the seminar.

The foundation's vice-chairman and secretary-general, Chiao Jen-ho, said he was surprised Beijing had reacted through the media instead of informing the body officially.

The foundation's mainland counterpart, the Association For Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, told Taiwan's TVBS network it only wanted Mr Chiao to lead a delegation to Xiamen, Fujian province.

An association spokesman was quoted by TVBS as saying it would be inappropriate for Mr Koo to attend, as Beijing wanted to see contacts increase gradually.

Beijing unilaterally halted regular high-level contacts between the two groups in mid-1995.

Yesterday, Taipei accused Beijing of trying to dictate the cross-strait agenda.

'We hope that any problems between the two sides can be solved through negotiations,' Mr Chiao said.

'One side should not unilaterally decide [matters], without respecting the opinions of the other side.' Foreign Minister Jason Hu Chih-chiang also criticised Beijing for refusing to receive Mr Koo.

'I have always felt that when one side tries to decide the time, place, participants and the agenda, this clearly makes it difficult for the other side to accept,' Mr Hu said.

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