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Taiwan president urges, then downplays stronger ties to China
TAIWANESE President Ma Ying-jeou first urged greater integration with China to improve the island's weak economy, but later backtracked, saying on the government website that he saw no urgency and wanted to focus on trade.
China's new president, Xi Jinping, in October said an end to the standoff could not be postponed forever.
Earlier he said: "I fully understand that if the Taiwan economy is to expand further, we need to end the cross-strait standoff."
While trade has opened with the mainland, Taiwanese exports have been hit by slack demand in China coupled with slower global growth.
Taiwan hopes to join a possible trade pact between a dozen countries around the Pacific Rim known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is made more difficult because other countries withhold official recognition of Taiwan because they are reluctant to offend China.
The US-backed trade deal hopes to establish a free-trade bloc stretching from Vietnam to Chile and Japan, encompassing about 800 million people and almost 40 per cent of the global economy.
China said in May it would study the possibility of joining talks on the pact but has said little about it since.
China's new president, Xi Jinping, in October said an end to the standoff could not be postponed forever.
Earlier he said: "I fully understand that if the Taiwan economy is to expand further, we need to end the cross-strait standoff."
While trade has opened with the mainland, Taiwanese exports have been hit by slack demand in China coupled with slower global growth.
Taiwan hopes to join a possible trade pact between a dozen countries around the Pacific Rim known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is made more difficult because other countries withhold official recognition of Taiwan because they are reluctant to offend China.
The US-backed trade deal hopes to establish a free-trade bloc stretching from Vietnam to Chile and Japan, encompassing about 800 million people and almost 40 per cent of the global economy.
China said in May it would study the possibility of joining talks on the pact but has said little about it since.
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