US embassy cable - 05TAIPEI467

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 000467 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS AIT/W 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/01/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, TW, Cross Strait Politics 
SUBJECT: SEF-ARATS DISCUSS "ONE CHINA" DEADLOCK 
 
REF: A. 01/28/05 AIT-EAP/TC E-MAIL (NOTAL) 
     B. 2004 TAIPEI 3190 
 
Classified By: AIT Director Douglas Paal, Reason: 1.4 (B/D) 
 
1. (C) Summary: PRC State Council Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) 
Deputy Director Sun Yafu urged Taiwan officials to accept 
Beijing's offer to use the "1992 consensus" as a basis for 
renewed dialogue.  Sun made the appeal during a one-hour 
meeting on February 2 with Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) 
officials in Taipei, where Sun visited in his role as Vice 
Chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan 
Strait (ARATS) to attend the funeral of SEF Chairman C.F. 
Koo.  In his meeting with SEF Senior Secretary Patricia Lin, 
Sun rejected Taipei's suggestion of a more ambiguous 
reference to the "1992 Hong Kong talks" and a request to send 
SEF officials to the PRC for further talks.  Sun agreed, 
however, to consider Taipei's proposal for a meeting in a 
third country to further explore options to break the "One 
China" deadlock.  Sun also promised to convey President Chen 
Shui-bian's invitation to ARATS Chairman to visit Taiwan. 
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) officials are cautiously 
optimistic over the exchange and say they will seek a 
response from Beijing over Taipei's proposal for further 
talks in the coming days.  End Summary. 
 
Funeral Diplomacy 
----------------- 
 
2. (C) PRC TAO Deputy Director Sun Yafu provided SEF Senior 
Secretary Patricia Lin (Shu-wen) an explanation of Beijing's 
 
SIPDIS 
conditions for restarting a cross-Strait dialogue during an 
hour-long meeting on February 2 at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek 
Airport, according to readout provided to AIT by MAC Senior 
Secretary Jan Jyh-horng.  Sun arrived in Taipei in his role 
 
SIPDIS 
as ARATS Vice Chairman to attend memorial services for SEF 
Chairman C.F. Koo.  Sun was accompanied by ARATS Secretary 
General Li Yafei.  Contrary to Taiwan media reports, Jan told 
AIT that Sun did not engage in substantive discussions with 
MAC Vice Chairman (and SEF Secretary General) Liu Te-shun 
during a brief pull aside at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial. 
Instead, substantive discussions were conducted at the 
airport VIP lounge between Sun and SEF's Lin, who was 
assigned to escort the ARATS group under a MAC-ARATS 
agreement reached on January 28 (Ref A). 
 
3. (C) Jan told AIT that after an exchange of pleasantries, 
Sun asked Lin to convey Beijing's request that Taiwan accept 
the "1992 consensus" as a basis for restarting cross-Strait 
political talks.  Sun asserted that this position is a major 
concession from Beijing's perspective, since it would not 
require Taipei to accept the PRC's "one China principle." 
Lin, who was authorized to convey Taiwan's formal position, 
countered by urging Beijing to consider President Chen's 
October 10 offer of renewed talks based on the framework of 
the "1992 Hong Kong talks" (Ref B).  Sun responded that this 
would not be acceptable, since the 1992 Hong Kong SEF-ARATS 
talks failed to produce an agreement on key principles.  "The 
1992 consensus," Jan quoted Sun as stating, "was concluded 
only after the Hong Kong talks via an exchange of faxes 
between SEF and ARATS." 
 
4. (C) Lin replied that Taipei did not accept this 
characterization of events, but requested Beijing's 
permission to send an SEF delegation to Beijing to explore 
the issue further.  Sun replied that the conditions that 
allowed SEF-ARATS exchanges in the past no longer exist. 
According to Jan, Sun said that Beijing only agreed to 
establish the SEF-ARATS channel because the then-KMT 
government fully endorsed the 1990 Guidelines on National 
Unification (Guotong Gangling).  Nevertheless, Sun said he 
would convey Lin's request to hold a private meeting in a 
third country to discuss options for bridging differences 
over the "1992 consensus."  Jan told AIT that MAC would wait 
several days before asking for an answer on the issue. 
 
Wang Invitation 
--------------- 
 
5. (C) Jan noted that in the "three-minute" pull-aside at the 
Sun Yat-sen Memorial, MAC Vice Chairman Liu only had time of 
convey President Chen's invitation for ARATS Chairman Wang to 
visit Taiwan.  Jan said that Liu offered to send a special 
plane with medical staff to facilitate Wang's travel.  Sun 
promised to personally convey the invitation to Wang, but 
noted that the ARATS Chairman's health is rapidly 
deteriorating. 
Atmospherics 
------------ 
 
6. (C) Jan told AIT that MAC is cautiously optimistic over 
the February 2 airport exchange.  Jan noted that Sun's 
delegation had been reluctant to have any contact whatsoever 
with MAC/SEF until the morning of February 2, when they 
accepted the request for a brief pull-aside on the margins of 
the funeral ceremonies.  Even then, however, Jan said that 
the atmospherics were uncomfortable.  While Sun was warm and 
friendly, Jan noted, ARATS SecGen Li was gruff and abrasive, 
refusing to sit down during the meeting, even after Sun did 
so.  Jan said he was pleasantly surprised that Sun was 
willing to engage SEF's Lin in substantive discussions at the 
airport, especially in light of Lin's relatively junior 
protocol rank.  He speculated that Sun may have calculated 
that by waiting until shortly before his departure, Sun could 
prevent the Taiwan side from exploiting the SEF-ARATS 
exchange in the media before the Koo funeral. 
 
Comment: A Window of Opportunity? 
--------------------------------- 
 
7. (C) Sun's presence at the Koo funeral has raised 
expectations that recent momentum from the Lunar New Year 
charter flights and Jia Qinglin's January 28 speech might be 
maintained.  Sun's delivery of a substantive message and 
willingness to consider future rounds of discussions are also 
encouraging signs.  Unfortunately the two sides did not 
discuss more immediate issues such as the PRC's proposed 
Anti-Secession Law, the main source of potential friction 
over the coming three months.  Nevertheless, if Beijing and 
Taipei can work out a more formal round of contacts in a 
third country, it would be a significant step towards 
re-establishing some sort of dialogue that might help avoid 
miscalculations over the Anti-Secession Law and other issues. 
PAAL