CHINA : Government Rebuffs Call for Taiwan Talks

China will not resume talks with Taiwan until the island recognizes Beijing’s sovereignty, the official People’s Daily reported in its overseas editions. Taiwan has sought a meeting to ease tensions that this spring were at their worst since the late 1950s. China’s semiofficial Assn. for Relations Across the Straits notified the Straits Exchange Foundation in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, on Wednesday that it too wants a resumption of the talks Beijing suspended nearly 13 months ago, the Communist Party newspaper said. But the association repeated a June 22 statement by Communist Party and government offices that any talks must be held under “the principle of one China”--the mainland’s code for Beijing’s right to rule Taiwan.