One-China principle is Beijing's bottom line, experts concede
( 2002-01-30 11:00 ) (3 )

Beijing is unlikely to compromise on the one-China principle despite its pragmatic strategy in handling cross-Straits relations, Taiwan affairs officials and experts said on Tuesday.

They stressed that the one-China principle - Beijing's bottom-line - is a policy which allows for no bargaining.

"On the issue of adhering to the one-China principle there is no ground to make a compromise," said Xu Shiquan, director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He made the remark in response to vice-premier Qian Qichen's expression of welcome to members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to visit the mainland. In a speech last week, Qian said Beijing believes there is a distinction between the majority of the DPP members and a handful of diehard separatists who advocate Taiwan independence.

"The whole Chinese nation will oppose any compromise on the one-China principle, which would mean tolerance and connivance of separatism," Xu said.

The view was echoed by a source with the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

"Nobody can expect us to make any compromise on the matter of principle," he told China Daily.

Xu said the one-China principle has been a basic stance commonly recognized by all Chinese people including Taiwan compatriots. It is not a unilateral policy put forward by the mainland.

Taiwan's National Unification Guideline also promotes the final unification of the motherland, according to the director.

Both the mainland and Taiwan are Chinese territory and promoting unification of the motherland should be the common responsibility of all Chinese people, according to one of the principles of the guideline, adopted in February 1991 by Taiwan's National Unification Council.

It is the DPP administration that has betrayed the sacred goal of the national reunification in a bid to seek Taiwan independence. Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian has so far refused to accept the one-China principle since he took office in May 2000.

But the one-China principle is not something the mainland is forcing upon Taiwan, according to Zhou Mingwei, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

Both sides of the Straits share the same history and culture and it has been clearly stated in international covenants and basic laws of both sides that there is only one China in the world, Zhou said during a recent trip to the United States.