- (AFP) -- China vowed to "crush" any attempts
by Taiwan to seek independence, calling the island's President Chen Shui-bian
"selfish" and "immoral".
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- "In the face of outrageous splittist activities,
we must make necessary preparations to resolutely crush Taiwan independence
plots," Li Weiyi, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said
at a press conference Wednesday.
-
- He said Chen, who will be running for a second term as
president early next year, was putting at risk the interests of the island's
22 million people to satisfy his own political ambitions.
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- "In a selfish bid to win re-election, Chen spares
no effort to gamble with the immediate interests of the people of Taiwan,"
he said.
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- "This is very immoral and has triggered the strong
indignation and common condemnation of 1.3 billion Chinese."
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- The remarks came at time when tensions between the two
sides -- governed separately since the end of a civil war in 1949 -- are
reaching heights not seen for years.
-
- In an interview with the Financial Times Wednesday, Chen
said the island was being pushed towards independence because of Chinese
military aggression.
-
- He threatened to abandon a so-called "five no's"
pledge -- which includes a promise not to declare independence -- if China
resorted to force.
-
- The newspaper quoted Chen as saying that even the testing
of missiles off Taiwan by China would constitute force. "It is an
attack," Chen told the daily.
-
- Chen has outraged Beijing by unveiling plans to hold
a referendum during the March presidential elections, calling for China
to dismantle hundreds of missiles targeting the island and to renounce
the use of force.
-
- China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory
awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, has deployed 496 ballistic
missiles facing the island on the southeast part of the Chinese mainland.
-
- Taiwan's parliament on Tuesday passed a resolution proposed
by two opposition parties urging China to remove its missiles and arguing
their presence forced the two sides to remain in a state of "cold
war."
-
- But the missile plebiscite aside, China's even bigger
worry is over plans by Chen, if re-elected, to submit a new constitution
to a referendum in 2006 and enact it in 2008.
-
- China is concerned a new constitution could strengthen
the move towards independence by playing down Taiwan's link with the mainland.
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- Even as the two sides remain technically at war, economic
ties are thriving, with Taiwan businesses investing an accumulated 35.7
billion dollars on the mainland.
-
- The Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday published a policy
paper calling for an early start of direct mail, transportation and trade
links between the two sides.
-
- The "three direct links" have been discussed
on and off for the past 25 years, and the minimal real progress so far
is mainly caused by obstruction of the Taiwan government, the paper said.
-
- "(Chen) has broken his promise, gone back on his
word, and done everything in his power to postpone the opening of the 'three
direct links'," it said, calling the president's policies the "root
cause" of the lacking progress.
-
- The paper urged the direct ties to be realized at an
early date, reiterating that it should be considered an internal Chinese
matter, and not an issue between two sovereign countries.
-
- "We call on the Taiwan authorities to take practical
steps as soon as possible to remove the obstacles in the way of direct,
two-way and complete 'three links' between the two sides of the Taiwan
Straits," it said.
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