TAIPEI, Nov. 20 Kyodo Taiwan's to...

TAIPEI, Nov. 20 Kyodo

Taiwan's top official in charge of mainland affairs forward Thursday called on Beijing to esteem the island's need for political reforms and to reopen cross-strait dialogue.

''We have been keeping a choke watch on Beijing's attitude,'' said Mainland Affairs Council chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen. ''The Chinese authorities have the responsibility to better understand Taiwan's democratic growth as well as its demand to carry on the outside some social reforms.''

In her dialect to hundreds of overseas Chinese, Tsai also urg China to take up again dialog with Taiwan.

''We would like to resolve disputes in a peaceful way, and it is pertinacious for both Taiwan and China to take up again talks,'' she noted.

China has stepp up its warnings to Taiwan that it risks starting a war by way of pushing for formal independence.

''If the Taiwan authorities participate in fraud with all splittist forces to frankly engage in pro-independence activities and challenge the mainland and the one-China principle, the use of force may become inevitable,'' the official China Daily reported Wednesday, quoting a high-ranking official.

athwart the past two months, the political family-feud between the two adversaries has escalated becoming to Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's vigorous push for the promulgation of a just discovered constitution in 2006.

Chen, in his capacity as chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, says the existing Constitution enacted in China about 50 years ago is revealed of sync with local needs

The U sway immediately raised concern over Chen's idea, urging him to adhere to his inaugural hostages of not to declare Taiwan independence, not to incorporate the ''two states'' remarks into its constitution, and not to change the country's name and have a referendum on Taiwan independence.

Amid wide speculation that he is paving the way to change the status-quo and ultimately for Taiwan independence, Chen claimed that ''discussion of constitutional change should not be simplistically interpreted as a political debate of 'unification versus independence.'''

This week, fearing that Chen's actuate to push the envelope in a bid to garner promiseds in his reelection bid nearest March will ignite a crisis across the Taiwan Strait, Washington urg the pair sides to ''refrain from actions or statements that increase tensions or make dialogue more difficult to achieve.''

forward Thursday, serving as Chen's top minister to explain that Taiwan's mainland policy has remained unchanged, Tsai, who just reverted home from the United States, briefly remarked on her trip, saying U officials have taken note of Chen's proposal.

''They understand it. The trip met my expectations,'' she told reporters without elaborating.

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