TAIWAN:
Taiwan's outgoing Vice President Annette Lu on Sunday hailed her successor's
historic meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, which she said would reduce
animosity between the two rivals.
The rare positive remarks from
Lu, an outspoken critic of Beijing's human rights record, came after Vincent
Siew met Hu on Saturday in the highest-level contact ever between the two sides.
Lu's pro-independence
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was trounced by Ma Ying-jeou and running mate
Siew's Kuomintang (KMT) party in the March presidential vote.
Lu said the 20-minute meeting
on the sidelines of the Boao Forum in China's Hainan Island "helped eased the
cross-Strait tensions over the past few months caused by the referendum on the
United Nations."
The
controversial referendum on UN membership was initiated by the DPP and failed to
muster enough support when held alongside the presidential vote.
It called for the island to
join the UN under the name of Taiwan, a move strongly opposed by Beijing as it
was seen as a significant step towards independence.
"Hopefully future exchanges
between the two sides can go on amid such harmonious atmosphere," Lu told
reporters, though she warned that "still caution will be needed in the future."
Despite ever closer economic
links between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, political relations between China
and Taiwan deteriorated during the eight years the island has been ruled by the
DPP.
Ma has vowed to improve
relations with China, increase trade, tourism and transport links, and work on a
peace treaty to end hostilities, which have been in place since their split in
1949 at the end of a civil war.