The Straits Times of Singapore reported that Chen Shui-bian sent secret envoys to Beijing to negotiate the contents of his May 20 inaugural speech. (read the article) The Taiwanese government denied it saying it was just a rumor. (read the reports in Taipei Times and China Post)
I do not know how the DPP members think of this report. On the one hand, this looks like Chen is making a concession to Beijing in the eyes of his pro-independence or anti-China supporters; on the other hand, this reassures the people who have been worried about Chen's lack of contacts in the PRC government. It was just secret "envoys" that were reportedly sent, but it seems secret meetings by government officials of both sides had been conducted throughout the PRC-KMT relation's history. There is a famous case reported in 2000 publicly. It's a complicated story so I am not going into details, but basically there had been a secret channel between Jiang Zemin 江沢民 and Li Deng-hui 李登輝. Read this article or this BBC News if you want to know the story (and can read Chinese). The BBC News and this article emphasize that such secret meetings should be encouraged in order to maintain the cross-strait security, and the purpose of the 2000 report is to give pressure to Chen, who did not have any connection with the PRC officials.
Posted by sayaka at May 3, 2004 12:06 AM | TrackBack