Taipei, Oct. 28 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian reaffirmed his sincerity Thursday to promote normalization of relations across the Taiwan Strait.
Chen also reiterated that his administration's constitutional re-engineering plan is primarily aimed at enhancing government efficiency and upgrading Taiwan's competitiveness. "Although Taiwan is a sovereign state, it has not been that normal or complete. We need constitutional re-engineering to ensure good governance, " Chen said, adding that it's extremely unfair to Taiwan to distort the constitutional reform program as a tactic to promote de jure independence in a gradual manner.
Chen made the remarks while meeting with Douglas Bereuter, chairman of the U.S. Asia Foundation, and other senior executives of the foundation, who arrived in Taipei Wednesday to attend a meeting marking the foundation's 50th anniversary.
In his May 20, 2000 inauguration address, Chen said he has made it clear that he will not declare Taiwan independence during his tenure.
Even though facing divided opinions in domestic society, Chen said he is still willing to extend an olive branch to mainland China with maximum sincerity to promote normalization of cross-strait relations.
However, Chen said, mainland China has stubbornly insisted on its "one China" principle aimed at forcing Taiwan to accept its "one country, two systems" unification scheme. "The majority of Taiwan people cannot accept such unification terms, and this is the biggest obstacle to the opening of cross-strait dialogue and negotiations," Chen said.
During the meeting, Chen expressed his gratitude for the U.S. Asia Foundation's contributions to Taiwan's democratic development over the past five decades.
Between 1954 and 1996, Chen said, the foundation has contributed much to having such universal values as democracy, freedom, rule of law and human rights take root in Taiwan.
The foundation has also assisted Taiwan's Legislative Yuan in establishing a library and an assistant system. Moreover, it has helped elite members in various Taiwan quarters to do advanced studies in the United States. Thanks to the foundation's assistance, more than 700 aspiring Taiwan youths, including Vice President Annette Lu, have managed to pursue tertiary academic degrees at U.S. universities over the past years.
For his part, Bereuter said, the U.S. Asia Foundation will cooperate with the Taiwan Asia Foundation in promoting grassroots democratic participation and cross-strait exchanges and dialogue.
In response, Chen said he believes that Taiwan's democratization can spawn a "lighthouse effect" to inspire mainland China to evolve into a liberal democracy in the future. Such a development would be conducive to the easing of cross-strait tensions, he added.