Taiwan needs time to digest Chinese leader's cross-strait comments

Jan 6, 2009, 12:15 GMT

   Taipei - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou Tuesday said his government still needs time to digest the content of a goodwill speech on cross-strait relations recently made by his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

   'We are still making further efforts to try to understand what exactly (Hu) wanted to convey through his speech,' said Ma in a meeting with a group of visiting US scholars.

   Through a press statement, he said the Chinese leader 'had in certain aspect made concrete responses to some of Taiwan's concerns.' Ma did not elaborate.

   It was the first time Ma had responded to the speech on cross-strait relations made by Hu on December 31.

   In an address marking the 30th anniversary of a message from China to 'compatriots in Taiwan,' Hu said the two sides can choose an appropriate time to engage in exchanges on military issues and even discuss the building of a trust mechanism for military safety.

   'We call on both sides to negotiate on ending hostilities and reaching a peace pact under the principle of 'one China,'' he noted.

   He also urged Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party to drop its pro-independence platform, saying Beijing would react positively towards the DPP if it abandons its goal to build a Taiwan nation.

   Taiwan and China had been at the loggerheads since they split at the end of a civil war in 1949. Beijing, considers the island an integral part of the mainland, has vowed to bring the island back to the Chinese fold, if necessary by force.

   But their hostility has eased greatly since Ma of the China-friendly Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, became president in May and adopted a policy to engage Beijing.

   Ma has proposed that the two sides set up a trust mechanism for military safety and negotiate inking a peace agreement.

   On Sunday, Taiwan's defense ministry said it believed Beijing might slowly reduce the number of missiles aimed at the island after a Hong Kong-based weekly reported a reduction plan. China reportedly has deployed 1,300 missiles targeting the island.