Mr Koo Chen-fu, left China yesterday after a meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin. It was the highest-level contact between the two sides since 1949, but they remain as far apart as ever on reunification. After his talks with President Jiang and other senior Chinese officials including the Vice-Premier, Mr Qian Qichen, Mr Koo told his hosts that the lack of political reforms in China was the major obstacle to any negotiations. Despite the lack of any real progress in the talks, foreign diplomats in Beijing welcomed the high-level contact between the two sides as a sign of easing tension across one of Asia's potentially most dangerous flashpoints. Beijing refuses to rule out the use of force against Taiwan if the island it regards as a renegade province declares its independence.
Most analysts agree that Taipei agreed to the talks under pressure from the United States.
The Clinton administration is attempting to improve its ties with Beijing and wants to avoid any confrontation over Taiwan like the 1996 crisis when the US deployed two aircraft carrier battle groups to the South China Sea as a deterrent to China after the People's Liberation Army staged threatening missile tests in the ocean near Taipei. The US remains committed to defending Taiwan if it is attacked by China but it doesn't want the increasingly democratic and independence-minded island to provoke the mainland. The official New China News Agency reported that in his talks with Mr Koo, Vice-Premier Qian had called on Taiwan to begin early talks on reunification and renewed China's pledge to allow Taiwan to retain its capitalist system and a large degree of autonomy if it would rejoin the mainland. The two sides are expected to continue regular talks, with suggestions that President Jiang could meet Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui. But any meeting would almost certainly involve wrangling over timing, location and the status of the two leaders.