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TAIPEI - TAIWAN'S president-elect said he had no immediate plans to visit China, but wanted to sign a peace treaty with the communist neighbour, start direct flights, allow more Chinese tourists to visit and help the island's financial industry go to the mainland.
Mr Ma Ying-jeou, a former Taipei mayor, trounced his ruling party rival, Mr Frank Hsieh, in Saturday's vote after a long campaign that focused on relations with China. Mr Ma was widely viewed to be favoured by Beijing, which insists this self-ruled island of 23 million people is part of the mainland.
A sitting Taiwanese president hasn't set foot on the mainland since a bloody civil war split the two sides in 1949. Mr Ma of the Nationalist Party told reporters on Sunday that he had no plans to visit China in the near future.
But he said he wanted to sign a peace treaty to 'terminate the state of hostility'. The 'most urgent job' ahead was to improve relations with the mainland, Mr Ma said, 'for instance direct flights, to allow mainland tourists to come to Taiwan, to allow our financial services industry to go to the mainland'.
Although thousands of Taiwanese companies have invested in China in recent years, the island still maintains a ban on direct shipping and air links across the 160-kilometre-wide Taiwan Strait. The government has also been cautious about relaxing restrictions on sensitive or strategic industries - like finance and technology - that want a bigger piece of China's booming market.
The main worry is that Taiwan would become too vulnerable or dependent on China, which still threatens to use its massive military to unify the two sides.
Mr Ma, who won 58 per cent of the vote, endured an often nasty campaign by Mr Hsieh, a former premier who got 41 per cent of the ballots. Mr Hsieh tried to paint Mr Ma as a softy who would quickly cave in to China and sell out Taiwan's interests.
The 57-year-old Ma has proposed a common economic market with China, and Mr Hsieh told voters the policy would trigger an invasion of cheap Chinese labourers who would steal away Taiwanese jobs.
But Mr Ma - who led the opinion polls for most of the campaign - was supported by voters who lost faith in President Chen Shui-bian and his Democratic Progressive Party. Mr Chen's eight years in power were marred by corruption scandals, legislative gridlock, economic woes and tensions with China. The law requires Mr Chen to step down after serving two four-year terms.
United States President George W. Bush said on Saturday Mr Ma's victory offers Taiwan and China a fresh chance to settle their differences peacefully. He urged the two sides to pursue 'dialogue through all available means'. Negotiating with China might be difficult and slow-going for Mr Ma.
Chinese leaders can be extremely conservative on the Taiwan issue, and they've long insisted that the Taiwanese agree that the island is part of 'one China', which includes the Communist mainland.
Most Taiwanese view the mainland to be repressive and backward.
They're uncomfortable about becoming part of it. -- AP
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