At a news conference afterward, Soong said he hoped the new language would help the two governments set aside their differences. "We're using 'two shores, one China' now, so there's no need to haggle over past wording," he said.
Hu said after the meeting that "the peaceful and stable development of cross-strait relations requires both sides to conduct dialogue on an equal footing and to expand their consensus while putting differences aside," state media reported.
The communique still includes references to the "1992 consensus" and the "one China" principle, as well as a section opposing independence for Taiwan, all of which Chen's supporters will find objectionable. In the television interview, Chen also noted that the communique made no mention of the Republic of China or the role Taiwan's 23 million residents should play in determining the island's future.
"It's one step forward, but we have a long way to go," said Alexander Chieh-cheng Huang, a former mainland affairs official in Chen's government who now teaches at Tamkang University in Taipei. "We have new terminology, but the old issues and problems remain."
China passed a law in March mandating a "non-peaceful" response if Taiwan moved toward formal independence. But lately it has been waging a campaign to woo public opinion on the island. The Beijing government hosted another opposition party leader, Lien Chan, chairman of the Nationalist Party, for a historic visit late last month, and it has offered to grant the island trade benefits and send it two pandas as a gesture of friendship.
At the same time, Chen seems to be searching for language that would allow him to open talks with the mainland. In October, he proposed resuming dialogue "on the basis of the 1992 Hong Kong talks." After Beijing rejected that, Chen suggested alternative wording, offering to resume negotiations in March "on the basis of the results achieved in the 1992 Hong Kong talks."
Xu Bodong, director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Beijing Union University, which has ties to mainland policymakers, said China was trying to make it politically easier for Chen to retreat from his pro-independence past in the hope that as a lame-duck president he may want to leave a legacy in cross-strait relations.
Xu said the government understood it needed to help Chen "save face" and extricate himself from his past positions. "We can't compromise on our basic principles, but we can make practical, rational adjustments in wording and phrasing," he said. "It's not as important what he says as what he does if the talks resume."
For example, Xu said, the government would expect Chen to move quickly to implement agreements worked out with Lien and Soong, especially one calling for passenger flights between the mainland and Taiwan. Xu said it would even be possible for Chen to visit the mainland later this year.
But Chen has been sending mixed signals about his willingness to alienate supporters who want independence. In an interview earlier this week, he surprised the public by criticizing his predecessor, Lee Teng-hui, an ardent supporter of Taiwan independence. But he heaped praise on Lee in Thursday's interview. Similarly, he has both criticized and applauded the visits to the mainland by Lien and Soong.
Emile Sheng, a political scientist at Soochow University in Taipei, said Chen's response will not be clear until after Saturday, when the island elects a national assembly to consider constitutional reforms. Chen's party has been slipping in the polls, and he may be worried about losing more support. "He expressed disagreement with the communique today, but he still left the door open," Sheng said.
