Ma takes office in Taiwan, pledging to boost ties with China but rejecting unification

extracted from http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national%20news/2008/05/20/157322/Ma%2Dtakes.htm

Ma takes office in Taiwan, pledging to boost ties with China but rejecting unification
By ANNIE HUANG, APTAIPEI, Taiwan -- Ma Ying-jeou took office as Taiwan's president Tuesday, urging rival China to open a new page of peace and prosperity in their long-strained relationship while rejecting unification with the mainland any time soon.
Ma's comments in his inaugural address were consistent with his long-standing policies of seeking greater economic engagement with Beijing without renouncing Taiwan's de facto sovereignty.
"The normalization of economic and cultural relations is the first step to a win-win situation," he said.
Earlier in the day, Ma, Vice President Vincent Siew and the new Cabinet took their oaths of office in a somber ceremony in the ornate presidential office building.
In a packed sport arena in another part of Taipei, Ma set the China policy tone for his new administration.
Addressing political leaders and representatives from Taiwan's dwindling cadre of diplomatic allies, he exhorted Beijing to seize the chance created by his March election victory to build a better future for people on both sides of the 160-kilometer-wide (100-mile-wide) Taiwan Strait.
"(I) hope that the two sides can use this rare historical opportunity," he said. "Let's open a new page of peace and prosperity."
Ma made it clear that even while he renounces the platform of formal independence espoused by predecessor Chen Shui-bian, he also opposes unification with the mainland, from which Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949.
"We will adopt the principle of no independence, no unification and no use of force," he said.
China still claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has repeatedly threatened to attack if the island makes its de facto independence permanent.
Ma's election victory was fashioned on his pledges to tie Taiwan's powerful but laggard high-tech economy to China's economic boom.