Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian said on Sunday that Taiwan wants to follow South Africa’s model of ending apartheid to seek peace with China.
Chen made the statement while receiving former South African president FW de Klerk, who is in Taipei to attend a seminar on reconciliation.
Chen lauded De Klerk for peacefully ending South Africa’s apartheid in 1990, for which De Klerk and Nelson Mandela together won the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.
”I hope the conflict across the Taiwan Strait can also be solved peacefully through dialogue,” Chen said.
Chen thanked de Klerk for supporting Taiwan and Taiwanese people, and urged the international community to recognise Taiwan’s human rights, democracy and economic success.
China sees Taiwan as its breakaway province and has vowed to recover Taiwan by force if Taipei seeks independence or indefinitely delays unification talks with Beijing. — Sapa-dpa