Associated Press

Taipei, May 13

Taiwan today dismissed China’s revised definition of its relationship with the island as a restatement of Beijing’s long-standing claims of sovereignty over its neighbour, as a

second Taiwanese opposition leader returned from a groundbreaking visit to the mainland.

James Soong, the leader of Taiwan’s second-largest opposition party, said Chinese President Hu Jintao Hu told him yesterday that talks on China-Taiwan relations could proceed if the island’s government accepted the principle of “two sides, one China.”

Taiwan today said the revised phrase contained nothing new, and that Beijing should stop issuing preconditions for talks on improving relations.

“We cannot accept any (formula) that has any form of ‘One China’ as its content and that is unilaterally drafted by Communist China ... as a precondition for the resumption of talks or negotiations,” said Michael You, the spokesman for the Mainland Affairs Council, the Cabinet department in charge of relations with China. You described the phrase “two sides, one China” as merely new packaging for China’s long-standing claims of sovereignty over the island. In a televised interview late yesterday, Chen set the tone for You’s comments by saying Beijing’s revised formulation forged no new ground.

“China did not make any concessions,” he said. “(The formulation) would make Taiwan a special administration of China, a part of the People’s Republic of China.”