China says ready to talk peace with Taiwan

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China says ready to talk peace with Taiwan
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ff44e8ae-0927-11de-b8b0-0000779fd2ac.html

By Kathrin Hille in Beijing
Published: March 5 2009 01:55 | Last updated: March 5 2009 06:35

China is ready for talks on concluding a peace agreement with Taiwan, Wen Jiabao, premier, said on Thursday, offering another example of the friendlier language Beijing has used towards the island over the past year.

The remarks are a repetition of key statements Hu Jintao, president, has made since Taiwan elected Ma Ying-jeou, who takes a friendlier and more pragmatic stance on China, as president early last year.

“Last year…positive changes occurred in the situation in Taiwan, and major breakthroughs were made in cross-Straits relations,” Mr Wen said in the government’s annual work report to the National People’s Congress, the rubberstamp legislature.

He pledged to facilitate the signing of a comprehensive agreement on economic cooperation, and said: “We are also ready to hold talks on cross-Straits political and military issues and create conditions for ending the state of hostility and concluding a peace agreement between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits.”

Mr Hu had mentioned China’s willingness to take these steps in a speech on New Years Eve.

While Mr Ma first proposed a peace agreement and a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement with China, Taipei is unlikely to be in a hurry to respond to Beijing’s overtures as distrust between the two still runs deep.

Mr Ma’s government has repeatedly said it aims to address the easiest and least controversial issues first – such as a resumption of direct flights across the Strait which started late last year – and then gradually deal with more difficult economic issues, and only in the long term move towards political issues.

This is because Beijing’s and Taipei’s stances on Taiwan’s sovereignty remain completely incompatible.

The remarks on Taiwan mark a ritual climax in the premier’s speech to the NPC every year, as the reiteration of Beijng’s claim of sovereignty over the self-ruled island serves as a catalyst to rally feelings of unity and support for the political leadership.

As usual, Mr Wen’s Taiwan remarks – just two minutes from the end of a two-hour speech otherwise focused on the economy – received more lively applause than any other part of the speech.

Apart from his overtures towards Taiwan, Mr Wen also included some rhetoric that will touch a raw nerve in Taiwan.

He pledged to “vigorously promote Chinese culture” in contacts with the island, and said: “We are convinced that, with the concerted efforts of the people on both sides of the Straits, we will achieve complete reunification of the motherland and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

In direct contacts with Taiwanese politicians, Chinese leaders have stopped referring to their goal of unification as they have adopted more sophisticated tactics to woo the island which treasures its de-facto independence and its own identity.