Taipei, Dec. 23 (CNA) The next leader of China is likely to continue with a peaceful approach to China-Taiwan affairs, Taiwan's top cross-strait negotiator said Thursday.
Fresh off the sixth round of cross-strait negotiations, Chiang Pin-kung, Chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), told CNA in an interview that the peaceful development of cross-strait relations is obviously a vision shared by the two sides.
"Peace" is the key word in cross-strait exchanges because the two sides can only develop and prosper if peace is preserved, he said.
For example, Chiang said, some Taiwanese businessmen in recent years have opted to invest in Vietnam or Indonesia instead of the Philippines, where social order and political stability have been less than satisfactory.
Chiang said that he has not met Xi Jinping, who is scheduled to succeed Hu Jintao in 2012 as president of China, but he expects that Xi will maintain Hu's Taiwan policy.
However, Chiang acknowledged that there has been some inconsistency in China's policies toward direct cross-strait negotiations and Taiwan's international participation.
This is because China's foreign ministry "has its own way of thinking," he said.
Several cases in the past were indicative of China's intolerance regarding Taiwan's participation in the international community, he said.
China's attitude on this issue could affect bilateral relations and the Taiwan people's impression of China since "almost all these cases made headlines in the Taiwanese newspapers," Chiang said.
Taiwan had often reminded the Chinese government that Beijing's foreign embassies "are still acting in the same way," he said.
On Tuesday, Chiang and his Chinese counterpart Chen Yunlin, President of the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), signed a medical and health-care cooperation agreement, the 15th pact between the two sides since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May 2008 and began advocating cross-strait detente.
According to Chiang, cross-strait talks have entered a phase of "substance over style, " which he said means the content of the negotiations is more important than the process. In the future, the talks are likely to be more difficult, he said.
Meanwhile, he said, the SEF will focus on the implementation of the existing agreements and will advocate continued and wide bilateral exchanges.
For instance, Taiwan should be more confident and open its doors wider to Chinese students, he said.
With its proud democracy, Taiwan will be able to "make them pro-Taiwan, " he said. "The more China and the people of China understand Taiwan, the more they will respect us for our democracy, hospitality, courtesy, vibrant culture and way of life."
Chiang lauded the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP's) move to establish a think tank that will formulate its China policy over the next decade.
He said that the DPP, which was firmly anti-China in the past, had to think about this issue sooner or later. (By Chris Wang) enditem /pc