US Urged to Defy Rumors

A former chief negotiator with Taiwan Wednesday urged the United States to accept that Beijing intends to implement its peaceful reunification policy in good faith.

Tang Shubei, former executive vice-president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, urged Washington to disregard rumors that the Chinese mainland will change its policy of peaceful reunification.

He said that the mainland has done solid work to bring peaceful reunification closer.

Tang was addressing an international conference in Beijing on China-US relations, jointly sponsored by the Chinese National Defence University and Georgetown University in Washington DC.

More than 20 scholars from the United States and China attended the four-day conference, which concluded Wednesday.

Tang indicated that the mainland and Hong Kong combined became Taiwan's largest export area this year. The mainland has also been the biggest source of Taiwan's trade surplus for many years, he added.

“The fact that both sides of the Straits have common interests should be an affirmative and positive factor in solving their political differences," he said.

Tang, now director of the Cross-Straits Relations Research Centre, said that it is necessary for the US to openly declare that it supports the mainland's peaceful reunification policy in order to enhance mutual trust and thus reduce the friction between the two countries over the Taiwan question.

“If the two sides (Taiwan and the mainland) are unified peacefully, the most sensitive core issue between China and the US will be solved," he said.

Tang added that Taiwan separatists will never succeed in provoking a Sino-US military confrontation.

He stressed that the US would itself benefit from peaceful reunification.

“If the US makes a constructive contribution to the peaceful reunification of the two sides of the Straits, it can be forecast that it will win more respect from the Chinese people, who make up one-fifth of the world's population," said Tang.

He pointed out that the uncertainty of Washington's position on the future of the island had encouraged some Taiwan separatists.

The US has always expressed its wish for a “peaceful resolution" of the Taiwan question, while the mainland says it will try to achieve peaceful reunification.

“If we analyse this literally, a peaceful resolution can mean either peaceful reunification or peaceful separation or peaceful independence, which is just what some in the Taiwan authorities are pursuing," Tang said.

He added that the only choice left for the US Government to support should be peaceful reunification, considering that Washington has clearly stated that it would support Chinese reunification and has repeatedly stated that it would not support Taiwanese independence.

(China Daily June 27, 2002)