BEIJING, Feb. 1 -- The Chinese government dispatched two senior officials to Taipei on Tuesday for the funeral of a Taiwanese leader, the latest in a series of conciliatory gestures from Beijing designed to lower tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
The officials -- Sun Yafu, deputy director of the government's Taiwan Affairs Office, and Li Yafei, secretary general of the semiofficial Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait -- were to attend ceremonies for Koo Chen-fu, who headed Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation and conducted historic talks with the mainland in 1993. Koo died Jan. 3 of cancer.
In this photo released by the Koo family, Sun Yafu, center, and Li Yafei, right, two senior Chinese officials, meet with the widow of Koo Chen-fu.
(AP)
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Sun and Li were scheduled to stay one day, Chinese officials announced, and no formal business was planned. Nevertheless, the display of respect for Koo and his family was seen as another signal from Beijing that it wants to improve the atmosphere and perhaps restart talks with the self-governing island after a long freeze.
"In the long term, we hope that cross-strait relations are moving in the right direction," Sun told Taiwanese reporters after a courtesy call on the Koo family.
A member of the Communist Party Politburo's elite Standing Committee, Jia Qinglin, said in a speech Friday that China was willing to negotiate with Taiwan's pro-independence president, Chen Shui-bian, despite previous assessments that no progress was possible while Chen ran the island. Jia also suggested that China's leadership would be open to informal contacts for such practical improvements as direct transportation and postal service between Taiwan and the mainland.
The day after the speech, Taiwanese residents of China flew home for the Spring Festival holidays on the first direct flights since the defeated Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949. The flights, all charters, will last only three weeks. But China and Taiwan had both made concessions to get them organized, contributing to a sense that both governments had decided to seek at least better atmospherics, if not improved relations.
Officials described Jia's speech as an important expression of the Chinese position, although it did not depart from existing policy concerning the island. The government considers Taiwan a province that must reunite with the mainland.
Jia repeated that Chen would have to accept some form of the "one-China" principle -- the idea that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of it -- before official talks could resume. But the conciliatory tone and emphasis on flexibility were a clear shift from the hostility directed against Chen since he was elected in 2000 and reelected last March.
The new signs of flexibility follow an official evaluation of Chen's setback in the Dec. 11 Taiwanese legislative elections, according to an informed Chinese specialist who spoke on condition of anonymity. The voting, which was seen here as a repudiation of Chen's confrontational approach, suggested to China's leaders that many Taiwanese, even among Chen's supporters, would prefer to lower the temperature in the relationship, the specialist explained.
Against that background, he said, the Chinese government has decided to appeal to those Taiwanese by making friendly gestures. The government could soon negotiate cargo flight arrangements, which would help Taiwan's vital computer-assembly industry, and fruit imports, which would help farmers in Chen's southern strongholds, the specialist suggested.
The Chinese analysis also concludes that, following the election, Chen is less likely to take steps toward independence. "It has reduced the danger for Chen Shui-bian to make adventurous moves," the specialist said. "The danger has been reduced, so perhaps we can afford to be more flexible."
The Chinese government, along with analysts in Taiwan and elsewhere, had expected Chen's position to be reinforced by the Dec. 11 vote. That expectation led to the recent announcement of an anti-secession law that is expected to be passed by the National People's Congress this spring.
The proposed law, which Chen's government has denounced as a threat of war, has become a potential sour note in the otherwise improving atmosphere. For that reason, a Chinese source predicted, the government is likely to make sure the proposal's still-secret language does not reverse the trend.
Special correspondent Tim Culpan in Taipei contributed to this report.
