Taiwan continuing statehood policy: ex-China policy maker

TAIPEI (AFX-ASIA) - Taiwan's former mainland policy architect said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government is continuing to implement the statehood policy which had displeased Beijing.

	    Su Chi, former chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), told a seminar sponsored by the leading opposition Kuomintang yesterday that he had 

been told by his successor Tsai Ing-wen that the DPP government would quietly carry out the policy.

	    "The government had said in public it would stop talk about the theory. But on a private occasion she told me (we) would continue to implement (the policy)," Su said.

	    "It was a shock to me," he said.

	    Tsai was the architect of the policy unveiled by then president Lee Teng-hui in July 1999. Lee for the first time defined Taipei-Beijing ties as a "special state-to-state relationship."

	    "The tensions caused by the claim were more risky than that of 1996," Su said, referring to when China lobbed two ballistic missiles into the Taiwan Straits to scare the electorate into not voting for Lee for a second term. 

	    "What I have seen (is) that the government is working according to the script of the 'two-state theory'."

	    Su referred to the slow progress in the opening of transport, commerce and postal links with the mainland which have been interrupted for over 50 years.

	    "They (the DPP government) said they want full links with the mainland. They also said they would open to the mainland tourists. But these ideas come 

to nowhere for now," he said.

	    "Basically this fully reflected what they think in their minds," he said.

	    The DPP attacked Su for raising the issue in public, given the delicate nature of Taipei-Beijing ties.

	    "The issue should not have been raised before the media. As a matter of fact, in doing so, we are harming each other," said Yen Chien-fa, head of the DPP's China affairs department.

	    "This is not a simple issue and should not have been discussed in public. What do you think Beijing may think?" he asked.

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