Taiwan's President Lee Tenghui yesterday marked the arrival of President Clinton in China by rejecting mainland peace overtures. Mr Lee said moves toward reunification on Chinese terms were not what the Taiwanese public wanted.
But China yesterday invited Taiwan's top negotiator to visit Beijing in a gesture apparently intended to coincide with Mr Clinton's visit to the mainland.
The nationalist leader assured a visiting Honduran parliamentary delegation that there will "undoubtedly" be reunification. But Mr Lee, whom Beijing has repeatedly accused of pushing for independence from the "motherland," swiftly reiterated the official Taipei line.
"The goal we have been pursuing is [the two sides] be integrated under the system of freedom, democracy and equitable distribution of wealth," Mr Lee said.
China, which split with Taiwan in 1949 at the end of a civil war, has proposed a "one country, two systems" formula for Taiwan similar to the one used for Hong Kong's return to mainland rule.
But Taiwan has turned down the idea, saying it would put Taipei at a political disadvantage in any talks.
"In making the proposal," Mr Lee insisted, "Beijing has turned a blind eye to the desires and wishes of people.
"What's more, a reunited China without freedom and democracy goes against international trends."
China wants Taiwan to be the top issue at tomorrow's summit in Beijing between Mr Clinton and President Jiang Zemin.
Meanwhile, Beijing's quasi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) sent an invitation asking Taiwan's top negotiator, Mr Koo Chen-fu, to meet his Chinese counterpart, Mr Wang Daohan, in Shanghai in mid-September or October.
Mr Koo is chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), Taiwan's body for handling relations with the mainland. Mr Wang is chairman of ARATS.
In Taipei, the SEF deputy secretary general, Mr Jan Jyh-horn, said he was "pleased to see the development" but refused to speculate on whether it had anything to do with the summit.
Taiwanese observers said the first visit by a US president to China since 1989 was symbolic of improved ties between Washington and Beijing despite differences over trade, nuclear arms proliferation and human rights.
Taiwan fears its interests could be compromised in any agreement between Mr Clinton and Mr Jiang.
Foreign Minister, Mr Jason Hu, admitted yesterday Taiwan is "very worried" that Beijing will try to persuade Mr Clinton to agree to measures which will undermine the nationalist island.
"They will try to persuade the United States to co-operate in order to limit the range of action or freedom we have in our own affairs, or even in terms of our own securities so that Beijing could put pressure on us," he said.
An ad hoc committee formed to monitor the summit held an hourlong, closed-door meeting yesterday.
"We are a responsible government, we have worked out countermeasures, even for the worst," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Some fear that Washington, Taiwan's close ally for decades, could press the nationalist government into talks with Beijing.
"It would be detrimental to Taiwan's interest should Mr Clinton give any hint of positive remarks on `one country, two systems' when he drops by Hong Kong during the trip," added Mr Yeh Chulan, an MP for the opposition Democratic Progressive Party.
Yesterday, some 60 pro-independence activists began a three-day sit-in in front of Washington's de facto embassy in Taipai.
Meanwhile, three political dissidents made a landmark application yesterday, just hours before Mr Clinton's arrival, to establish an opposition political party in China.
Activist Mr Wang Youcai said by telephone that he and two other activists from eastern Zhejiang province had lodged papers with the Zhejiang province civil affairs bureau to establish a branch of the Chinese Democratic Party.
"This is the first time in the 50 years since the founding of new China that political dissidents have openly applied to register an opposition party," said Mr Lu Siqing, spokesman for the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
"It is a significant event in the history of the democratic movement in China," he added.
Mr Wang (31), was 15th on the most wanted list of students after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. He was quickly arrested and sentenced to four years in jail, but was released early for good conduct in November 1991.
Although both Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji say they are promoting universal suffrage, they say China will not be ready for such a move for at least 50 years. They do not tolerate any open dissent to their control and regularly imprison those who voice their opposition.
Mr Wang was accompanied by fellow political activists, Mr Wang Donghai and Mr Lin Hui, and said he was not aware of any immediate action from the Chinese authorities against the other two applicants.
The last person to try to establish an opposition party in China was exiled dissident, Mr Wang Binzhang, who slipped back into the mainland from the US in January. After spending two weeks trying to set up the China Democracy and Justice Party he was arrested and expelled from China. Although China already has eight nominally "democratic" parties that were established before the founding of Communist China in 1949, all pledge their loyalty to the Communist Party and offer no effective opposition.