ARATS chairman leaves Taipei
Written by Writer on Saturday, November 8th, 2008
ARATS chairman leaves Taipei
Taiwan and China have a long way to go before they can attain peace and closer economic cooperation, their top negotiators said yesterday.
But both Chen Yunlin, chairman of the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), and his counterpart P.K. Chiang pledged their all-out efforts to bring about that win-win result at an earliest possible date.
Chiang, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), visited the Grand Hotel in Taipei early in the morning to send off Chen and his ARATS delegation.
They met at 8:10 a.m. at the main lobby of the hotel at Yuanshan and Chiang spoke first after bidding good-bye to China’s top negotiator on Taiwan affairs.
“Our meeting was conducted with dignity and on an equal footing,” Chiang said. Four agreements were signed at the meeting on Tuesday between Taiwan and China on shortened air routes, direct maritime shipping, better mail service and food safety.
“We have a long way to go,” Chiang went on, “and we will adhere to these two principles (with dignity and on an equal footing) to continue working … to complete in the near future much work left undone.”
In a departure statement, Chen thanked the SEF profusely for its untiring efforts to further improve relations across the Taiwan Strait.
“We have accomplished the glorious mission the people on both sides of the Strait have entrusted us, the mission whose successful completion they have long looked forward to,” Chen pointed out.
He said he and his 60-member delegation arrived in Taipei on Monday bringing the goodwill and friendship of the 1.3 billion people on the Chinese mainland to their 23 million compatriots on Taiwan.
“Today,” Chen said, “we are leaving for home bringing with us the profound friendship of the 23 million people of Taiwan back to their brethren on the mainland. We are leaving Taipei, bringing with us their (Taiwan people’s) understanding of and support for the people on the mainland.”
Thanks are due to all the law-enforcement personnel who provided security for the ARATS delegation, Chen said.
“I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to all those law-enforcement officers who have made many sacrifices, working from morning till night and shedding blood in clashes (with protesters),” the ARATS chairman said and stepped back from the microphone to take a deep bow.
No word can adequately express the gratitude he and his ARATS delegates owe the law-enforcement personnel, Chen said. “I also extend my thanks on behalf of all of us to their families,” he added.
Chen also thanked the Grand Hotel staff for providing him, his wife and his ARATS delegates with a “home away from home” service.
“In the near future,” Chen continued, “I look forward to many more friends in Taiwan coming to the mainland (of China) for a visit, which will be enthusiastically welcomed (by the people on the mainland).
“I hereby promise and guarantee you (many more friends on Taiwan) that harmony pervades on the mainland. There’ll be spring wind all the way (you go there).”
Spring wind signifies comfort.
The ARATS chairman then expressed grateful thanks to all the media workers.
“Without you,” Chen told all reporters covering his four-day visit in Taipei, “the whole world wouldn’t have watched what we (the ARATS and SEF) have done here — all the things the people on both sides of the Strait have wished to be done to their satisfaction and joy.”
The ARATS delegation left the Grand Hotel at 8:20 a.m. The way to Taoyuan International Airport was without protesters.
At the airport, however, a woman leaving for the United States shouted “Independent Taiwan!” as ARATS delegates entered the VIP lounge.
She was led away by a police guard. “I saw bloodshed,” she told reporters at the airport. “And I had a sudden urge to say Taiwan is an independent, sovereign state and I didn’t want the ARATS chairman to come to Taiwan,” she added.
“After thousands upon thousands of words had been said, I wish to repeat the same words: ‘Thank all of you,’” Chen said at the door of the Boeing 747 jet that would take him and his delegates to Beijing direct.
The plane took off at 10:08 a.m.
Aside from the four agreements Chen inked with Chiang, their two quasi-government organizations charged with conducting relations between Taiwan and China discussed and reached initial agreement on financial and banking cooperation across the Strait.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) is expected to be signed in the next Chiang-Chen meeting, which will take place in Beijing next year.
No dates have been fixed for the Beijing meeting, which will have to be held in the first half of 2009. Regular flights across the Strait will be made a reality after that meeting.
Despite the bloody protest in the last four days, SEF sources said, the meeting after the one in Beijing is likely to be held in Taipei in the latter half of next year.
“By then,” an SEF source said, “the dust has settled, and Chairman Chen will be able to lead another delegation to Taipei.”
Saturday, November 8, 2008 1:20 am TWN, By David Young The China Post
