China Again Warns Taiwan on Move Toward Independence

HONG KONG, Dec. 17 — China strongly warned Taiwan today not to continue the island's recent, election-season drift toward more independent and confrontational policies toward the mainland.

The warning came a day after Taiwan's national legislature approved two resolutions calling on China to remove nearly 500 missiles pointed at the island. Taiwan's vice president, Annette Lu, described the missiles as "state-sponsored terrorism."

Li Weiyi, the spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing, described President Chen Shui-bian today as "immoral" and accused him of risking his country's future for the sake of winning a second four-year term when Taiwanese voters go to the polls on March 20.

"Chen Shui-bian's selfishness in seeking re-election spares no effort and gambles with the immediate interests of Taiwan compatriots," Mr. Li said.

Issuing what the official New China News Agency categorized as the strongest warning to the island in weeks, Mr. Li said that "in the face of outrageous Taiwan independence-splittist activities, we must make necessary preparations to resolutely crush Taiwan independence-splittist plots."

In an interview on Dec. 5, Mr. Chen revealed plans to hold a national referendum, also on election day, demanding that China withdraw the missiles and renounce the use of force against the island. He insisted then that he was not motivated by election politics, but that a referendum was "a universal value and a basic human right" and that "a referendum represents a concept and belief that I have pursued throughout my more-than-20-year political career."

In an interview published by the Financial Times today, Mr. Chen also warned that if China conducts missile tests close to Taiwan, as it did in 1996, then he would no longer consider himself bound by a pledge in his inaugural speech in 2000 not to seek changes on issues of Taiwanese sovereignty.

The legislative resolutions and the comments this week by Mr. Chen and Ms. Lu were the latest signs that with closely fought presidential elections scheduled in March, many Taiwanese politicians are unwilling to back away from confronting China.

When Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China visited Washington last week, President Bush publicly called for President Chen to stop raising tensions in the Taiwan Strait. But President Chen has been defiant, insisting at campaign rallies and in interviews that he will go ahead with his plans for the referendum on election day.

President Chen's Democratic Progressive Party has long leaned toward more formal independence for Taiwan from the mainland, and has tended to do better at the polls when tensions with the mainland are highest. The opposition Nationalist Party favors eventual political reunification with the mainland and usually fares badly when people in Taiwan are especially upset with Beijing.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Ms. Lu, Taiwan's vice president, said that China's "deployment of missiles is a kind of state-sponsored terrorism."

A spokesman for China's foreign ministry responded during a routine briefing this morning, saying that Ms. Lu's comments were "totally unreasonable" and that "China using armed force to protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity is totally different."

The opposition Nationalist Party introduced the first of the two legislative resolutions passed on Tuesday. It called for China not to deploy any more missiles and gradually remove the current missiles.

Lien Chan, the party's chairman and presidential candidate, said in an interview on Dec. 5 that the resolution represented an alternative to President Chen's plans to hold a national referendum seeking removal of the missiles. Mr. Lien said that since China had been building up its missile batteries across the Taiwan Strait for years, those missiles did not pose a "clear and present danger" that would justify the holding of a referendum.

The Democratic Progressive Party responded in the legislature with its own, differently worded resolution calling on China to remove the missiles immediately. With the two parties unable to compromise on the wording, both resolutions passed on Tuesday.

James Huang, the chief spokesman for President Chen, said today that passage of the resolutions was not enough unless the votes prompted China to comply, something that analysts agree is very unlikely.

President Chen said when he first announced plans for the referendum on Dec. 5 that he would proceed with the national vote unless China removes the missiles and renounces the use of force before March 20, and that remains his position, Mr. Huang said.

Referring to the mainland by its legal name, the People's Republic of China, Mr. Huang said that "the key point is the reaction of the P.R.C in terms of the missile deployment and the arms buildup against Taiwan."

We must "free trade" with red china more, give them more high tech, more factories, make them stronger and richer, and more powerful economically and militarily, because one day, they are going to retake Taiwan, and may have to fight the United States in order to do it. If the United States wants to continue to bring in imports of manufactured goods from china instead of going back to the stone age after all of our factories have moved there, we will not be in a position to oppose whatever Red China wants to do.

I wish I knew more about this situation. I know that the USA used to be for any nation wanting an independent/democratic society. I remember the US backing Taiwan in the decision to become independent from Communist China in as little as the past year.

Why has this changed?

Since the historic trip of Nixon to China three decades ago, the agreed formula was one China, two systems. Now that the local Taiwanese are expressing themselves at a most inconvenient time for us, we're trying to tell them to stifle themselves.

We have our hands full with Iraq, Iran, North Korea and the remainder of the war on terror including Afghanistan. We could really use Chicom help with North Korea.

The Chicoms do not need to be provoked into a nationalistic response when they already have a ton of internal contradictions.

Heck, China won't have to threaten any kind of military action whatsoever. All they'll have to do is quietly remind us of how much of our bond debt they have been buying, and what will happen if they decide they don't want to buy our bonds any longer. Our choice will be simple, stand up for Taiwan and watch our economy go bye-bye, or wave goodbye to a free, independant Taiwan and keep the dollar afloat.

Poor Taiwan...

6 posted on 12/18/2003 11:31:47 PM PST by Elliott Jackalope (We send our kids to Iraq to fight for them, and they send our jobs to India. Now THAT'S gratitude!)

7 posted on 12/19/2003 12:03:12 AM PST by philetus (Keep doing what you always do and you'll keep getting what you always get)

I agree. Between the bond debt factor and the secret deal i believe we have made with the ChiComms to keep N. Korea in line, we have sold Taiwan down the river. We don't really have much choice any more thanks to the Clinton policies.

America is a capitalist country. Capitalism is what makes America great. Taiwan is a small island with 23 mil. people. China is the big future market with 1.3 bil. people. Even Taiwanese are investing in China like crazy, moving there, marrying mainland wives, their children saluting Mao at mainland elementary schools, etc. For the good of America's own future economic viability, America needs to place its bet on the horse with the 1.3 bil. population.

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