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Beijing ‘thinking deeply’ over Taiwan

BOAO, China (AP) — Chinese President Hu Jintao said he was thinking deeply about improving relations with Taiwan, state-run media reported Sunday, one day after an ice-breaking meeting between the rivals that have been locked in a standoff for nearly six decades.

Hu made history Saturday by briefly visiting with Taiwanese Vice President-elect Vincent Siew, who will take office next month. Their chat on the sidelines of a business conference made Siew the highest-ranking elected figure from across the Taiwan Strait to meet with a Chinese president.

After the discussion, Siew quickly met with reporters and characterized his late afternoon sit-down with Hu as friendly, and he praised him for being pragmatic. But Beijing waited until after midnight on Sunday to share Hu’s account of the 20-minute meeting at the southern Chinese resort of Boao.

Hu’s comments in the Xinhua report were cautious and simply summarized the meeting without reciprocating Siew’s praise. But Hu reportedly said the annual weekend conference in Boao — where businesspeople mix with world leaders — inspired us to think deep about cross-Straits economic exchanges and cooperation under the new circumstances.

Hu endorsed two of Siew’s key proposals: opening up Taiwan to more Chinese tourists and allowing weekend charter flights, Xinhua said. Direct air travel across the Taiwan Strait has been banned since the two sides split amid civil war in 1949.

Many hoped the Hu-Siew meeting would mark a thawing in the relations that have been in a deep freeze during the eight-year rule of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian. Hu and Chen distrusted each other, and neither was ready to make compromises that would get them to the bargaining table.

At times, an improvement in relations seemed hopeless and both sides appeared to be moving toward a war, which could quickly involve the U.S. — Taiwan’s most important friend.

Beijing loathed Chen because he refused to embrace China’s sacred goal: eventual unification. Chen believed that only Taiwan’s 23 million people had the right to determine the democratic island’s future. But Beijing insisted that Taiwan was an inseparable part of the motherland that must return — the sooner the better.

In the Xinhua report Sunday, Hu didn’t mention Chen by name but the Chinese leader said relations with Taiwan suffered twists and turns for reasons known to all in recent years.

Beijing is much more comfortable with Siew and his political partner, President-elect Ma Ying-jeou. Neither have publicly opposed unification, but they insist the thorny issue should be set aside for now so that future generations can settle it.

Daniel Tang, a China expert at Taiwan’s Chungyu Institute of Technology, said Hu was using his meeting with Siew to help improve China’s image as it deals with criticism over issues like its crackdown in Tibet.

China needs to produce positive results in cross-strait relations to divert attention from rows over its human right record before the Olympics, Tang said.

But Tang added that problems could emerge after the Olympics when the Taiwanese sovereignty issue would likely become a contentious point once again.
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Zimbabwe braces for strike; summit takes on vote crisis

LUSAKA, Zambia (CNN) — Zimbabwe’s opposition party called for a general strike to start Tuesday, the day after the country’s High Court is due to decide whether to force publication of presidential election results, a party spokesman said Saturday.

The strike would involve workers and others staying home in protest, days after Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s government banned political rallies.

Opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai and his supporters say they believe that the results will show Tsvangirai won the election outright.

He has said he would not take part in a runoff with Mugabe, which the incumbent government has suggested is likely.

Mugabe, 84, is the only ruler Zimbabwe has had since British rule of the former Rhodesia came to end in 1980.

He has been re-elected several times but often running either unopposed or in elections that prompted charges of fraud and state-sponsored terrorism against opponents.

Earlier Saturday, Leaders from southern Africa convened in Zambia’s capital for a meeting aimed at trying to resolve the dispute over the release of the presidential election results.

Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has appealed to Zimbabwe’s High Court to compel the Electoral Commission to release the results.

A decision is expected Monday.

Tsvangirai already has declared victory based on vote counts posted at polling stations in Zimbabwe’s 210 voting constituencies.

The country’s Electoral Commission, however, said Saturday that it will do recounts in at least 23 voting districts where Mugabe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF, has claimed discrepancies. Commission chairman Justice George Chiweshe said that a recount would be held April 19, according to the state-run Sunday Mail.

Mugabe, who is under pressure on diplomatic and domestic fronts to resolve the crisis, initially planned to attend the summit of the Southern African Development Community, but a government spokesman said Friday that he was instead sending three Cabinet ministers and a foreign affairs secretary.

The summit was convened by Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa.

Ahead of the session, South African President Thabo Mbeki held talks with Mugabe in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital.

Tsvangirai, who is at the summit, met with Mbeki in Johannesburg on Thursday night.

There has been growing pressure on Mbeki to step in and help resolve the election. Mbeki’s office did not disclose details of his meeting with Mugabe.

Zimbabwe’s state-run newspaper, The Herald, has indicated that neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai received enough votes in the election to avoid a runoff. A candidate must receive 50 percent plus one vote to win the election without a runoff.

Saturday’s one-day summit is seen by many as a test of the African group’s willingness, capability, and resolve to sort out Zimbabwe’s election fiasco.

Tendai Biti, secretary-general for the Movement for Democratic Change, said Saturday’s summit presents an opportunity to show the capacity for African institutions to respond objectively and decisively to negative, subjective conditions and situations.

We hope wise counsel will prevail at the end of the day, he said.

A Zambian man in Beitbridge, South Africa, at the border with Zimbabwe, said, Leaders should be honest, should be transparent.

They know what has happened in Zimbabwe. They know the situation in Zimbabwe. They might just come to a place where they give a clear direction to President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.

The man, who was not named, said he saw a heavy troop presence as he passed through Harare, but no soldiers in rural towns and villages.

A CNN correspondent in Harare, who cannot be named because CNN is not authorized to report from the country, also saw increased numbers of riot police in the capital. He said the riot police walk around in groups of six or 12, clearly showing their batons.

The correspondent saw riot police being driven around on flatbed trucks wearing full riot gear with shields and helmets. They banged their batons against the metal parts of the truck, producing what the correspondent described as a menacing voice.
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