Chen says anything is possible if authoritarianism ends Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian set conditions for cross-strait reunification yesterday, saying he would not rule out such a possibility if Beijing could give up its authoritarian rule. 'As long as the Chinese communists can abandon their one-party system and authoritarian rule, we will not rule out any possibility in any form of cross-strait relations with approval from the Taiwanese people,' Mr Chen told visiting members of a pro-Taiwan delegation from the European Parliament. The statement came ahead of a meeting scheduled for Sunday between the honorary chairman of the opposition Kuomintang, Lien Chan, and Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party. The meeting will take place in Beijing at the end of a high-profile two-day economic forum between the KMT and the Communist Party starting on Friday. Mr Chen said he was opposed to totalitarianism on the mainland because it destroyed democracy, freedom, human rights and peace. 'We don't oppose the mainland people in China, but resolutely oppose the totalitarianism enforced by the Chinese communists on the mainland,' he said. 'Nobody can force the Taiwanese to accept the so-called eventual unification,' he added in an apparent attempt to justify his recent scrapping of the National Unification Council, which had the goal of achieving eventual union between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. He hailed the European Parliament's recent decision to maintain its embargo on arms sales to the mainland until its human rights situation improved. However, in a separate meeting with a group of US congressmen at his office in Taipei, Mr Chen gave his blessing to a scheduled meeting between Mr Hu and US President George W. Bush in Washington next week. 'I hope it will be a success,' he told his guests. But he also added he hoped the mainland could become a stakeholder in the region, as the US had hoped, and that the rise of China would be peaceful and democratic. He said if that was the case, it would not be impossible for Taiwan to hold political and economic talks with the mainland in the future. Mr Chen did not say whether he would agree to talks with the mainland under the so-called '1992 consensus' as proposed by KMT leader Ma Ying-jeou. The Taiwanese leader has repeatedly denied the existence of such a consensus, which allows Taiwan and the mainland their own interpretation of 'one China' to facilitate talks, on the grounds that Beijing has never acknowledged it. He has asked Mr Lien to dare President Hu to acknowledge the consensus publicly before he would agree to return to the negotiating table. But Mr Lien, who will lead a 170-strong delegation to Beijing tomorrow, has said he will not carry such a message to Mr Hu.
