ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 20, 1996 TAG: 9605200150
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: TAIPEI, TAIWAN
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lee Teng-hui was sworn in as Taiwan's first popularly elected president today, and offered to meet with China's leaders for talks on ending their 47 years of hostility.
Offering to take a personal lead, he said he wanted to ``meet and directly exchange opinions with the Chinese Communist leaders to open a new era in dialogue and cooperation.''
``In the future, if necessary for the country, I am willing to embark on a journey for peace to the Chinese mainland, carrying with me the common wishes of our 21million people,'' Lee told 50,000 people packing a stadium outside Taipei.
Lee's eagerly awaited speech, at the stadium in Taoyuan outside the capital, contained no specific offers of compromise, but sought to strike a conciliatory note.
He also flatly ruled out making Taiwan independent and dumping the doctrine that Taiwan and China are one country.
Calling independence ``unnecessary and impossible,'' he added: ``I am deeply convinced that the Chinese people shall complete the historical test of peaceful unification in the 21st century.''
Meanwhile, he said, ``we in Taiwan have realized the dream of all Chinese. We have created an eye-catching economic miracle and achieved world-acclaimed democratic reforms.''
Those reforms, which led to the first presidential election by universal suffrage, were largely the work of Lee. He took office in 1988 and gradually dismantled the authoritarian legacy of the Chiang Kai-shek dynasty.
The March 23 election was held amid simmering hostility between the China and the capitalist island it claims as a renegade province.
China believes Lee wants to make Taiwan independent. It held menacing war games and missile tests off Taiwan to scare voters away from Lee. But Lee won with a landslide 54 percent of the vote.
LENGTH: Short : 47 linesby CNB