Cross-Strait Exchanges must Be Treated as Domestic Affair: Spokesman

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, June 27, 2002

Cross-Strait Exchanges must Be Treated as Domestic Affair: Spokesman

The "three direct links" across the Taiwan Strait must be treated as a domestic issue and direct transportation routes must be treated as internal routes, a Chinese mainland spokesman said Wednesday.

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The "three direct links" across the Taiwan Strait must be treated as a domestic issue and direct transportation routes must be treated as internal routes, a Chinese mainland spokesman said Wednesday.

Li Weiyi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the statement in response to remarks in Taiwan that listing the "three direct links" as an internal affair was tantamount to setting preconditions and barriers.

The "three direct links" refer to direct exchanges of mail, trade, air and shipping services across the Taiwan Strait. The twosides have been estranged since the civil war in the late 1940s.

"It is an indisputable fact that there is only one China and the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China. For a long time, there were no arguments about this on both sides of the Taiwan Strait," said Li.

"So long as the 'three direct links' are viewed as an internal affair, in concrete talks the specific meaning of 'One China' may be left untouched," he said.

He explained that classing cross-Strait transportation routes as internal routes would guarantee the rights and interests of industry, commerce and shipping on both sides of the Strait.

"According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country can retain the rights and interests of coastal transportation, fishing and commerce for its own businesses. Therefore making the "three direct links" domestic would prevent foreign companies from occupying the market and fully guarantee the rights and interests of compatriots and businesses on both sides of the Strait," Li said.

He stressed that the stand of the mainland on the issue was very clear. "So long as the 'three direct links' are treated as a domestic affair, the matter could be negotiated immediately at non-governmental level and then be approved. This is a concrete proof of our sincerity and there is no bargaining about this stand," he said.

Three exchanges still not realized

The spokesman said that the three direct exchanges of mail, trade, and air and shipping services across the Taiwan Strait had so far not been realized because the Taiwan authorities were holding back the progress in this regard.

Li Weiyi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, was speaking at a press conference in response to remarks by the Taiwan side that exchanges of mail and trade had been realized and only direct air and shipping services still had to be tackled.

Li mentioned that the Taiwan side had allowed Taiwanese business people to invest on the mainland, but still set limits on investment by mainland companies in Taiwan. There were no direct exchanges in the other two fields either.

On recent pledges by Taiwan, such as the "three direct links" are inevitable" and "concrete action will be taken in the next three months", Li said that the mainland would wait for the action.

He made an analogy of the situation: "It's like there were no sounds from the staircase in the past. Now we've heard the sounds, but we're more keen on when the people will come down."

Direct shipping no threat to Taiwan

The five-year trial of direct shipping services between several cities of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan has been deemed successful, according to the mainland spokesman.

The links have raised no safety issues or trade disputes and proved that direct shipping posed no "safety problems" to Taiwan, Li said Wednesday.

Approved by communications authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, direct shipping services between Xiamen and Fuzhou on the mainland and Kaohsiung in Taiwan started on April 19, 1997.

Li urged the Taiwan authorities to honor its pledges to promote the "three direct links" across the Taiwan Strait in the next three months and "not to let the Taiwan people down".

The "three direct links" refer to the direct exchanges of mail, trade, and air and shipping services across the Taiwan Strait. The two sides have been estranged since the civil war in the late 1940s.

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