Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said Wednesday the World
Trade Organization (WTO) and other international occasions are not
appropriate for the Chinese mainland and Taiwan to talk about what
he described as matters of China's internal affairs.
The mainland, as main body of China, and Taiwan, as a separate
tariff zone of China, are now members of the world trade body, but
issues between the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan
Straits, including those on economic cooperation, are China's
internal matters, which should be worked out by the two sides under
the "one China principle", said the foreign minister.
"There is no need to resort to any international forums, WTO
included," he said at a press conference sponsored by the Fifth
Session of the Ninth National People's Congress.
(Xinhua News
Agency March 6, 2002)