China does not trust Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian and will not work with him, a group of former US officials said Wednesday following their talks with the Beijing government.
Former US National Security Council members Kenneth Lieberthal and Douglas Paal, as well as former US State Department senior China specialist, Winston Lord met with Vice Premier Qian Qichen and China's chief Taiwan negotiator Wang Daohan during this week's visit.
"The bad news is that they don't want to work with Chen and the good news is that they are willing to wait and go with the status quo," one of the delegation members told AFP, asking to remain anonymous.
"The feeling here was that they feel Chen is just trying to buy time, he has not made any sincere efforts and they feel they cannot trust him," the former US official said.
Last week in Taiwan, the group discussed the cross-strait situation with Chen and were briefed on his efforts to begin a dialogue with Beijing aimed at reducing tension.
"We told them (Chinese officials) that Chen felt it was in his own best interests to form a dialogue with the mainland and that he was still searching for a way to do so," said the delegation member.
Beijing appears unwilling to move the Taiwan issue toward greater "crisis" and content to refrain from "military talk" and rhetoric on the issue for now, he said.
The former US official said it appeared that China would be content to try to isolate Chen and his followers, while encouraging friendly engagement with pro-mainland forces in Taiwan and with Chen's opposition.
Although China was adamantly against any foreign interference in the Taiwan issue, he maintained that Beijing still expected Washington to pressure Taiwan towards accepting the "One China" policy and refrain from selling advanced weapons to the island.
China insists under its "One China" policy that Taiwan, despite 51 years of de facto independent rule, is an inalienable part of its territory and must be brought back under mainland rule.
But Chen, who took office in May, has declined to recognize Beijing's definition of "one China" although he has backtracked on the strong pro-independence views he held before taking office.
The US group is to make recommendations to the next US government on Beijing-Taipei ties -- BEIJING (AFP)
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