Taiwan Offers Olive Branch to Chinese

In a frank admission of his own miscalculation, Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui said Friday he was surprised at the vehemence of China’s reaction to his U.S. visit last year, but he said he hopes to patch up relations with the mainland if he wins a historic election next month.

“Beijing is not happy about my international visits, but we’re not happy about their military exercises,” said Lee, referring to Chinese troops that Taiwanese officials say are massed across the Taiwan Strait for war games. “To end hostilities will be the first task of the president to be elected this year.”

The 73-year-old president, in his first news conference since he returned from his unofficial U.S. visit in June, told more than 100 journalists at Taipei’s presidential palace that he will invite Chinese leaders to engage in direct talks if he is reelected.

Lee said such steps are necessary to cool tensions that began to rise with his visit to Cornell University in New York, where he earned a doctorate in 1968.

Lee said neither he nor the U.S. State Department fully anticipated China’s anger at his trip.

“I didn’t expect the Chinese Communists would react so vehemently, [and] maybe the State Department people didn’t expect” it either, he said.

Beijing viewed Lee’s diploma diplomacy as part of a campaign to gain independence for Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.

The mainland’s worries have been exacerbated by Taiwan’s decision to fully democratize, with national legislative elections in December and its first direct presidential election slated for March 23.

China has staged a number of military exercises apparently aimed at discouraging any thoughts of independence.

Noting that the United States has taken a close interest in the escalation of tension across the Taiwan Strait, Lee expressed hope that Washington will remain actively involved in defusing it.

“The United States should have more contacts with Communist China for the sake of Asia’s stability,” Lee said, adding that Washington could more actively “show its concern.”

China has massed 150,000 troops in preparation for war games across the 137-mile strait, and it has vowed to reclaim Taiwan by force if independence is declared.

Lee said Taiwan is well-prepared.

“We can have 100 years without war, but we can’t go a single day without preparing for war,” he said.

He was at pains to show he does not favor splitting from China, saying Beijing is mistaking Taiwan’s shift toward democracy for moves toward independence.

“There are people saying I am for independence. That is not true,” Lee said.

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He insisted that he wants to reunite Taiwan with mainland China--but not yet.

“If China’s mainland can also have democracy, equitable distribution of wealth and social justice, then we can talk about reunification,” he said.

Instead of outright independence, Lee speaks of achieving “sovereignty” and “world recognition” for the territory, a distinction lost not only on China.

Opposition candidate Peng Ming-min, the only presidential hopeful who overtly embraces the notion of independence, mocked Lee’s political tightrope walk in his own news conference Friday.

“You cannot eat beef but you can eat steak? This kind of absurd situation confuses the minds of the people of Taiwan,” he said.