From The Taipei Times:

With the best will in the world it is hard to see anything new in President Chen Shui-bian’s (Èô≥Ê∞¥ÊâÅ) invitation to Chinese President Hu Jintao (ËÉ°Èå¶Êø§) to hold a “rational dialogue.” The government is trying to talk up the offer as if it involves major concessions.

After all, Taiwan has now abandoned the two previous conditions — that the talks take place outside China and that China abandon its demand that Taiwan recognize its “one China” principle.

In reality, this is almost meaningless. Chen cannot go to China without appearing as a supplicant seeking terms of surrender. And Hu will only come to Taiwan for a “handover” ceremony. As for “one China,” Taiwan’s condition for talks was that China drop this condition. Now Taiwan says it doesn’t have to. But China’s condition, of course, remains in place. And this is something that no Taiwanese government can afford to acquiesce to, given the slippery ever-changing definition of that principle — something the pan-blues, shortsighted and ignorant even when not simply paid off by Beijing, have never properly dealt with.