China warmly receives Taiwan's opposition leader

BEIJING -- China lavished hospitality Friday on Taiwan's opposition leader as he met President Hu Jintao in the highest-level contact since the communists and nationalists split amid civil war nearly six decades ago.

Hu and Nationalist Party Chairman Lien Chan pledged to promote an end to hostilities and to seek closer economic ties -- a boon to Beijing, which hopes to woo Taiwan's business leaders by touting the payoff from integration into the booming Chinese economy.

The Taiwanese government criticized the talks, calling Beijing insincere and saying they would do nothing to improve frosty relations.

The United States -- which many fear could be drawn into any China-Taiwan conflict -- stressed that dialogue should now involve Taiwan's elected government.

Scenes of Hu and Lien smiling and shaking hands as they met at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing were shown live on television across China and Taiwan to a potential audience of hundreds of millions.

Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened repeatedly to attack. But it also is pursuing peaceful efforts to win over the island, building ties with parties like the Nationalists that favor eventually uniting the two sides.

Relations between the Communists and Nationalists have warmed in recent years as they united in opposition to Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, whose party wants independence.

Beijing and Taipei should pursue "peace, stability and development for the future so that Chinese people on both sides of the strait can walk a path of peace and stability," Hu told Lien Friday.

Lien responded: "We absolutely should avoid confrontation and collisions. What we want is conciliation. We want dialogue."

Lien said he hoped his visit would help ease tensions with Beijing.

But Chen's ruling party criticized the meeting, saying it would do nothing to improve relations.

"The Chinese communist authorities once again demonstrated that they were insincere about improving ... relations, and our government highly regrets it," said a statement from the Mainland Affairs Council, which handles Taiwan's policy toward Beijing.

It said Lien failed to convince Hu to recognize the island's sovereignty.

"He also did not convince the Chinese communists to reduce their missile threat or their hostility toward Taiwan," the statement said. China has an estimated 600-700 ballistic missiles positioned along the coast facing Taiwan.

Lai Ching-te, a ruling party lawmaker in Taiwan, accused Lien of trying to "undermine the island's sovereignty and isolate the government."

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the United States hopes China will "move forward" toward dialogue with Taiwan's President Chen.

"Now, we believe that it's most important that there be dialogue between Chinese leaders and the elected representatives of the government of Taiwan," McClellan said in response to a question on the Taiwanese opposition leader's visit.

Beijing has treated Lien like a head of state during his eight-day mainland tour. His arrival was shown live on state television and sections of his news conference held after meeting Hu were shown on the national television evening news -- an almost unprecedented step even for a visiting government leader.

In Beijing, he was given a private tour of the Forbidden City and spoke at elite Peking University.

The warm reception stands in stark contrast to how China would have other countries receive Taiwanese leaders.

China reacted with outrage when former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui visited Japan and the United States, complaining he was campaigning for formal independence.

On Saturday, Lien flies to the western city of Xi'an and later goes to Shanghai.

The joint statement by Hu and Lien said their parties would promote a "formal end to the hostile situation," enhance mutual trust and party ties and oppose formal Taiwan independence.

It said the two political parties will promote Taiwan's involvement in international bodies.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Beijing had agreed to allow Taiwan to take part in international groups as a sovereign government or would continue to demand that it present itself as a territory of the communist mainland.

Beijing has tried to block Taiwan's efforts to join such bodies as the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

Lien said the Nationalist pledges were meant as suggestions to Chen's government and had no official weight.

"Frankly, whether this can be done depends on whether the governing party will take responsibility," he said at a news conference.

"The Nationalist Party as an opposition party can only put it forward as a suggestion. How to carry it out depends on what importance the government attaches to it."