- China cranked up the pressure on Taiwan's President Chen
Shui-bian demanding he "stop playing with fire" by pushing for
independence and warning the peace and stability of the region were at
stake.
-
- "Taipei's radical push towards independence has
put cross-Straits relations in the crucible," Wang Zaixi, vice minister
of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, was quoted as saying
in the China Daily's lead page one story.
-
- "Peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits will
be determined by what happens in the next three months," he said,
warning Chen to "stop playing with fire".
-
- Chen has signed a controversial bill which allows referendums
to take place and plans to hold the island's first ever referendum alongside
presidential polls on March 20, demanding Beijing remove hundreds of ballistic
missiles targeting the island.
-
- Taipei has said repeatedly the referendum has nothing
to do with independence and is a symbol of Taiwan's full-fledged democracy,
but Beijing is wary and US President George W. Bush has publicly rebuked
the plan.
-
- "Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian's stepped-up efforts
towards independence pose a great threat," Wang was cited as saying.
-
- "They should be closely watched. If Chen will recklessly
take more risky pro-independence moves ... it will trigger tension and
even a clash in bilateral ties."
-
- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has vowed Beijing will pay
any price to safeguard the "unity of the motherland", but Wang
stopped short of threatening force.
-
- Instead, he reiterated Beijing's long-standing policy
that the mainland will make unremitting efforts to peacefully settle the
Taiwan question but "will never allow anybody to split Taiwan from
China in any way."
-
- Aside from the front-page story, the English language
broadsheet devoted a comment piece and an entire inside page to articles
attacking Chen.
-
- In the comment piece, a senior researcher at the Chinese
Academy of Military Sciences, a research institute under the umbrella of
China's armed forces, called Chen an irresponsible, dangerous liar.
-
- "All signs point to Chen Shui-bian as one who does
not care for his reputation," said researcher Luo Yuan of the president
who pledged when he came to power in 2000 not to push for independence
or hold a referendum on independence.
-
- "His reneging on his erstwhile pledge, under the
pretence of 'mainland military threat', is highly illogical.
-
- "And his polemic is leading the Taiwan people down
the alley of war, chaos, and misery. He is an irresponsible and dangerous
person. People with a sense of decency, beware."
-
- Elsewhere in the newspaper Chen was variously described
as incompetent, immoral and a power-hungry politician who has dragged Taiwan
into an era dominated by inter-party infighting.
-
- "Chen has been attempting to promote populism to
split the Taiwanese society and undermine social harmony with a view to
serve his own pursuit of power," Zhu Weidong, assistant director of
the Institute of Taiwan Studies, was quoted as saying.
-
- Taiwan has been ruled separately from mainland China
since the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing maintains the island
is an integral part of Chinese territory which must be brought back under
its rule.
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