Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of
Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party, speaks during an interview with
Reuters in Taipei April 13, 2007. Ma said June 4 that he would end
hostility with the mainland if elected in the 2008 polls.
[Reuters]
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TAIPEI - The candidate from Taiwan's
leading opposition Kuomintang for the election next year on Monday vowed to end
hostility with the mainland and inaugurate direct transportation links if
elected in the 2008 polls.
Former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou said he would give top priority to forging a
peace agreement and a military confidence-building mechanism with Beijing.
"If elected, I would immediately engage in talks with (the mainland) on the
basis of the '1992 consensus'," he told a group of Taiwan businesspeople,
referring to an agreement reached between the former KMT government and Beijing
in 1992.
According to the 1992 consensus, both sides agreed there was one China.
Taiwan's independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party has rejected the
agreement since it won elections in 2000, ending the KMT's 51-year grip on
power.
He said he also hoped for closer economic ties with the mainland, including
the opening of the "three direct links" -- transportation, commercial and postal
services which have been cut since 1949.
DPP candidate Frank Hsieh has also agreed to inaugurate the three links
but said Taipei and Beijing must face each other as equals.
Cargo and passenger services do exist through third parties, mainly Hong
Kong.
Calls for the resumption of direct links have been mounting given ever closer
economic ties but Taiwan says government-level negotiations are required
before the ban can be lifted.
Despite the lingering political standoff, the mainland has been Taiwan's
largest trading partner since late 2002 and the island's businesspeople have
been major investors on the mainland.
Bilateral trade in 2006 rose to US$88.12 billion, up 15.4 percent according
to figures released by Taiwan's "Board of Foreign Trade."