Warmer tone on China from Taiwan

[Blackaxe]

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Four months after national elections that returned an ardent Taiwanese patriot to the presidency - deeply disappointing China and raising tensions in East Asia - Taiwan is adopting a creatively conciliatory approach to the mainland. It is reducing anti-China rhetoric and backing off provocative promises for a new constitution. Dyed-in-the-wool advisers to President Chen Shui-bian speak of going to the mainland for talks, inconceivable months ago.

Mr. Chen, grazed by an assassin's bullet on the eve of a bitterly fought election this spring, is adopting a more moderate policy towards China to de-escalate tensions, high-level ministry sources here say - something urged strongly on Chen by the US administration and now being cautiously welcomed by Beijing.

In what seems like an abrupt reversal for Taiwanese leaders who earned their stripes in opposing China, senior officials are talking about restarting formal dialogues with Beijing, setting up military confidence-building measures like phone hotlines to the People's Liberation Army, and taking up "direct links" that allow exchange across the Taiwan Straits.

"It is a completely new horizon, as far as I can see," says Andrew Yang, director of the China Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei. "I think Chen may have taken some advice from Washington."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0709/p01s04-woap.html