US Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Chinese leaders yesterday to be “open minded” and resume dialogue with Taiwan, but Beijing remains suspicious of the island’s president and opposes US arms sales to Taipei.

Powell is visiting China to prod Beijing to reopen dialogue with Taipei, frozen since 1999, after Washington welcomed Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian’s call for peace talks in his National Day speech on Oct. 1. “I particularly encouraged the Chinese leaders who I met with today to do everything they could to get into cross-Strait dialogue in a more systematic and deliberate way,” Powell told a news conference, referring to Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and has threatened to invade if the self-ruled democratic island formally declared independence. Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 under a “one China policy”, but the US Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act mandating the United States to sell arms to the island.

Asked to comment on Chen’s peace overtures, Powell said: “We thought, the United States thought, that there might be some elements that the Chinese could work with in improving cross-Straits dialogue.” But Beijing remains deeply suspicious of Chen, who has repeatedly provoked Taiwan’s giant communist neighbour by insisting the island is a sovereign nation, not a mere province of China.

“The response I received from the Chinese leadership today was that they are still concerned about President Chen Shui-bian’s actions and they did not find his statement to be that forthcoming,” Powell said. The United States and China have signed three joint communiques, the pillar of their bilateral relations, in which Washington pledged gradually to reduce arms sale to the island. “We believe that we will continue to meet our obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act and do it in a way that in no way undercuts our basic policy which is a ‘one China policy’ based on the three communiques,” Powell said.

“We very carefully balance the responsibilities that we have to China and the responsibilities that we have to Taiwan under our domestic law,” he said, adding that the Chinese had once more expressed opposition to US arms sales to Taiwan. Tension between China and Taiwan has been simmering since Chen’s re-election in March. The two sides have been diplomatic and military rivals since the civil war, but trade, investment and tourism have blossomed since the late 1980s.