TAIPEI, Taiwan — Chen Shui-bian began his second four-year presidential term today, using his inaugural address to offer a new beginning in the island's long and troubled relations with mainland China.
Speaking at the end of a rain-dampened morning of inaugural festivities, Chen said that despite the divergence of the political systems over the decades, rapprochement was possible.
"If both sides are willing ... then [the two sides] can seek to establish relations in any form whatsoever," he said. "We would not exclude any possibility so long as there is the consent of the 23 million people of Taiwan."
Chen said that promoting closer cultural, economic and trade links across the Taiwan Strait was an important step to rebuild trust between the two adversaries. However, he also used his speech to warn Beijing that further attempts to isolate Taiwan in the world community would only widen the existing political divide.
Long-simmering tensions between the two have made the region a potential tinderbox for more than half a century.
Chen also sought to ease Beijing's anxieties about his plans to reform Taiwan's 58-year-old constitution, a document he said required a major overhaul to fit the needs of an island democracy rather than the continent-sized country of China for which it was originally intended. Beijing has vehemently opposed any such change, fearing it as a de facto step toward independence.
Chen repeated assertions that he had no intention of using the reform to initiate provocative steps such as changing Taiwan's formal name, its flag or boundaries -- all moves strenuously opposed by Beijing, which considers the island a breakaway province of the mainland.
"Let me explicitly propose that these particular issues be excluded from the present constitutional re-engineering project," he said. Chen's avoidance of any reference to a "new constitution" was also viewed as an attempt to ease Beijing's concerns.
Chen's remarks came in the course of a 43-minute inaugural speech in which the island's leader set out his agenda for the next four years. The content of the speech had been the subject of considerable speculation, mainly because of Chen's unpredictable style of leadership, coupled with a tendency to probe the limits of Taiwan's highly sensitive relationship with mainland China.
His words will probably be studied closely in both Washington and Beijing.
