Chen aide detects one-China flexibility

Taipei's acceptance of principle 'not a precondition of secret cross-strait talks'

Taipei's acceptance of the 'one-China' principle was not a precondition for aborted secret talks between the mainland and Taiwan, a senior adviser to President Chen Shui-bian claimed yesterday.

Joseph Wu Jau-shieh, deputy secretary-general to the president and a senior aide on foreign affairs, said senior Taiwan emissary Koo Chen-fu and his mainland counterpart, Wang Daohan, were preparing to meet in Singapore in April last year when the secret agenda was leaked, forcing the meeting to be cancelled.

'Then came the Sars disaster and we were never able to reinitiate those talks,' said Mr Wu. 'Mainland China did not insist on the 'one-China' principle for those secret talks, just like they did not insist on 'one China' when Koo and Wang last met in Shanghai in 1998.

'It goes to show that they can be flexible if they want to. They will insist on 'one China' in public, but they are willing to be more pragmatic and recognise reality.'

Mr Wu said he was confident that - if President Chen was re-elected in next month's elections - mainland officials would come to the bargaining table and discuss Mr Chen's proposals early this week of scaling back frontline troops and setting up demilitarised zones.

Recent talks about air links hit a wall when mainland officials insisted that the links be established through airlines and not involve government agencies.