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- BEIJING - China told Taiwan
on Tuesday it was heading for a "monumental disaster" after abandoning
the "one China" policy, which has helped underpin East Asian
security for decades.
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- "It is very dangerous to use the interests, happiness
and future of Taiwan compatriots as a stake to engage in political adventures,"
the official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary splashed on the front
page of major newspapers.
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- "This will bring monumental disaster to the people
of Taiwan."
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- However, the commentary stopped short of restating Beijing's
longstanding threat to invade if Taiwan abandoned the common goal of reunification
and declared independence.
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- Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui, due to step down next
year, startled China at the weekend by saying uneasy bilateral talks could
continue only if they were considered "state-to-state" rather
than between "political entities".
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- Taipei said the idea of one, indivisible China that included
Taiwan -- a mutually accepted formula that has prevented war between them
-- had to be scrapped because Beijing was using it to undermine the legitimacy
of Taiwan.
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- Fewer than 30 countries have diplomatic relations with
Taiwan, which often offers generous aid to its allies.
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- China reacts with fury whenever Taipei succeeds in garnering
another friend, as it did last week when Papua New Guinea established diplomatic
relations with Taiwan.
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- Beijing is rarely shy about making threats in an attempt
to reverse a decision in the battle to push Taipei into diplomatic isolation
begun when the Communists won the civil war in 1949 and drove the defeated
Nationalists into exile.
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- The timing of Lee's abandonment of the "one China"
policy -- under which Taiwan said it was willing to reunite with a democratic
mainland -- seems to have puzzled everyone as a landmark looms with the
scheduled visit to Taiwan by a senior Chinese envoy.
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- Wang Daohan, the chairman of the Association for Relations
Across the Taiwan Straits due in Taipei in October, said the policy change
left no basis for unofficial contacts.
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- The Xinhua commentary warned that "those who play
with fire will get burnt". It heaped abuse on Lee for attempting to
break Taiwan out of diplomatic isolation and called him an international
troublemaker.
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- "He is publicly poisoning the atmosphere on the
two sides" of the Taiwan Strait, Xinhua said. "Lee Teng-hui is
a troublemaker internationally."
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- There was no support for Lee from his most important
friend -- the United States -- where the initial reaction to his startling
policy change was to contain the fall-out.
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- "Our policy is unchanged. Our one-China policy is
long-standing and certainly well-known," State Department deputy spokesman
James Foley said.
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- Taiwan's future was "a matter for the Chinese people
on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to resolve", he said.
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- "The United States has an abiding interest and concern
that any such resolution be a peaceful one. And to that end the United
States urges both sides to engage in meaningful, substantive dialogue."
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- Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing
from Taipei in 1979. It still supplies weapons to Taiwan and three years
ago sent two naval battle groups to the area as China fired off missiles
near Taiwan during war games.
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- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao warned
there was no possible compromise on the notion of one China.
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- "We sternly warn Lee Teng-hui and the Taiwan authorities
not to underestimate the Chinese government's firm determination to uphold
the nation's sovereignty, dignity and territorial integrity," Zhu
said.
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- "Don't underestimate the courage and power of the
Chinese people's to oppose separatism and Taiwan independence," he
said. "Lee Teng-hui and the Taiwan authorities must recognise the
situation, rein in at the brink of the precipice and immediately halt all
activities aimed at splitting the motherland."
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- _________
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- US Backs 'One China' Policy Despite Taiwan
Shift By Carol Giacomo
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- www.yahoo.co.uk
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- 7-13-99
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-
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- WASHINGTON - The United States,
seeking to contain a potential new crisis over Taiwan, reaffirmed on Monday
that it recognized one China ruled from Beijing despite Taipei's decision
to reject that policy.
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- "Our policy is unchanged. Our one-China policy is
long-standing and certainly well-known," State Department deputy spokesman
James Foley said.
-
- Foley reiterated the U.S. view that Taiwan's future was
"a matter for the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait
to resolve."
-
- "The United States has an abiding interest and concern
that any such resolution be a peaceful one. And to that end the United
States urges both sides to engage in meaningful, substantive dialogue,"
he added.
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- The White House struck a similar note. "Our main
interest is in seeing a cross-strait dialogue between the People's Republic
and Taiwan so that issues between the two can be resolved by peaceful means,"
said P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
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- They made their comments after Taiwan on Monday abandoned
the one China policy that has helped underpin East Asian security for decades,
prompting a furious Beijing to warn that Taipei had stumbled to a dangerous
"precipice."
-
- Taipei said the idea of one, indivisible China that included
Taiwan -- a mutually accepted formula which has prevented war between the
two sides for decades -- had to be scrapped because Beijing was using it
to undermine the legitimacy of the island's government.
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- Foley, reflecting the extreme sensitivity of the issue
both in the United States and Asia, repeatedly declined to comment on Taiwan's
policy shift.
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- He declined to predict what impact the Taiwan change
might have on dialogue between Taiwan and China, saying diplomacy was in
the interests of both.
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- "They've had ups and downs before. They've had declarations
before that each side has reacted negatively to. But they have managed,
though, to continue the dialogue, and I think they had recent meetings
that were meant to help prepare for a future visit (between officials)
... and we hope that that will go forward."
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- Since 1949, when communists drove the Nationalist Republic
of China off the mainland and founded the People's republic of China, the
"one China" formula has been one of the few things the two sides
agreed on.
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- Implicit in the formula was a promise by the Nationalists
not to seek independence for Taiwan. Beijing has vowed to crush any such
moves by force.
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- Taipei has many supporters in the U.S. Congress and the
administration has been under pressure to be more receptive to ideas about
Taiwanese independence.
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- A 1998 study by a Pentagon-funded think tank, the National
defense University, concluded that the United States would be drawn into
any war between China and Taiwan.
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- In 1979, the United States switched its recognition from
Taipei to Beijing.
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- But the U.S. Taiwan Relations Act permits unofficial
contacts between Washington and Taipei to flourish. It also provides for
arms sales to Taiwan, which Beijing bitterly opposes.
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- The act also commits the United States to "appropriate
action" in response to threats to Taiwan. In 1996, after China threatened
Taiwan, the United States sent two aircraft carrier groups to the region.
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