The Chinese government has offered to open political talks with Taiwan with no preconditions. The announcement came during a regular news briefing by the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofong. He said he hoped the two sides could start formal political talks as soon as possible, but the initial response from Taiwan is not enthusiastic. Carrie Gracie reports from Beijing:

Until recently it was easy for Taiwan to avoid getting drawn into political discussions with China because it saw Beijing's preconditions as so unreasonable that they didn't have to be given serious consideration. The insurmountable block was Beijing's insistence on what's become known as the One China Principle, according to which the only China is the Communist Peoples Republic on the mainland, and Taiwan is merely a province of that country.

But two weeks ago a senior Chinese official said the talks should be equal, and today the Chinese Foreign Ministry went one step further, finessing the prickly One China Principle, by saying that both sides of the Taiwan Strait already recognise that there is only one China. A senior Taiwanese official responsible for relations with the mainland, however, dismissed the talks offer, saying the time was not yet ripe for political negotiations.

But Beijing is clearly stepping up its campaign to persuade Taipei to the negotiating table. After the return of Hong Kong last year, Taiwan is the big outstanding reunification issue and for President Jiang Zemin its the issue he hopes will mark his place in history.

Diplomatically, Taiwan's room for manoeuvre is narrowing. The successful US-China summit last October was a blow, as was the dissection of its most important foreign ally, South Africa.