DATE=5/22/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-TESTING TAIWAN (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262629
BYLINE=LETA HONG FINCHER
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  China is testing the new Taiwanese 
president by keeping up its media blitz against 
any prospect of Taiwanese independence, while 
offering to resume talks under certain 
conditions.  V-O-A's Leta Hong Fincher has this 
report from Beijing on the latest wrangling 
across the Taiwan Strait.

TEXT: In the two days since new Taiwanese 
President Chen Shui-bian gave his inauguration 
speech, China's official media have been mixing 
their traditional hard line warnings to Taiwan 
with a new sign of flexibility on how to resume 
ties with the democratic island.

            ///CCTV ACT 1 IN CHINESE. EST, THEN 
FADE///

State-run Chinese television news led its midday 
broadcast Monday with discussions on how to 
promote Taiwan reunification with the mainland. 
But the report repeats the demand that Mr. Chen 
accept the "one-China" principle, which states 
there is only one China and Taiwan is a part of 
China.  

The broadcast features officials from China's 
State Council discussing Mr. Chen's inaugural 
speech.  The officials accuse him of only 
pretending to want better ties with the mainland, 
when in fact, they say, he's carrying out the 
same pro-independence policy as his predecessor, 
Lee Teng-hui.  

            ///CCTV ACT 2 IN CHINESE, EST., THEN 
FADE///

But the same broadcast urges the Taiwanese 
president to prove that he is sincere by 
establishing the so-called "three links" across 
the Taiwan Strait.  The "three links" refer to 
direct trade, transport and postal service - all 
severed by a 50-year ban placed by Taiwan on 
links between the island and mainland China.  The 
Kuomintang Party imposed the ban to protect its 
national security, after losing the civil war to 
the communists on mainland China and fleeing to 
Taiwan in 1949.

Chen Shui-bian did not mention the subject in his 
inaugural speech Saturday.  But he said 
separately on Sunday that he would consider 
ending the ban on cross-strait links, which he 
called "outdated, rigid and inflexible."

Many analysts see reversing the ban on direct 
links across the strait as one way for Taiwan to 
resume talks with China without explicitly 
endorsing the "one-China" principle.  Chinese 
leaders could then point to a lifting of
the ban and say they succeeded in drawing Taiwan 
closer to the mainland.  (signed)
 
NEB/HK/LHF/JO 






22-May-2000 05:27 AM EDT (22-May-2000 0927 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.