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Beijing reaffirms stand against independence
By Xing Zhigang (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-04-12 23:38 A senior Taiwan affairs
official Monday reiterated Beijing's determination to crush Taiwan leader Chen
Shui-bian's "evil attempt" to promote formal independence in the future.
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Zhang Mingqing,
assistant director of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office.
[newsphoto/file]
| Zhang Mingqing, assistant director of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs
Office, stressed that the mainland will never allow anybody to split Taiwan from
China in any form.
"No person nor force should underestimate the determination and capability of
the Chinese Government and its 1.3 billion people to safeguard national unity
and sovereignty and territorial integrity at any price," he said.
Zhang made the remarks during the Global Seminar on the Peaceful
Reunification of China, which was held in San Francisco in the United States.
Hundreds of overseas Chinese from Europe, Africa, North and South Americas
and delegates from the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong attended the two-day event
that was sponsored by the North California Council for the Peaceful
Reunification of China.
A declaration was released Monday at the end of the seminar, calling for more
than 50 million overseas Chinese around the world to join together to fight
against Taiwan independence and promote the peaceful reunification of China.
The declaration also included a five-point agreement reached among
participants, which included the adherence to the "one-China" principle, support
for peaceful reunification and the "one country, two systems" principle and firm
opposition to any pro-independence activities.
During his speech at the seminar, Zhang highlighted Chen's wanton advocacy of
"Taiwan independence" in a recent interview with the Washington Post.
On March 29, the Taiwan leader told the newspaper that he will push ahead
with his plans to adopt a new "constitution" for the island by 2008, a step
tantamount to a declaration of independence, despite the risk of war.
The move has "further exposed Chen's pro-independence nature as well as his
evil motives to push ahead with his splittist timetable," said Zhang.
He said such an act has also laid bare the fraudulence of Chen's earlier vow
to set up the so-called "peace and stability framework" across the Taiwan
Straits.
It is the first time that a mainland official has directly commented on
Chen's pro-independence push since the island's "presidential" election on March
20.
On March 26, Taiwan's "central election committee" certified the
"re-election" of Chen by just 0.2 per cent, or less than 30,000 votes more than
his rival out of more than 13 million ballots cast.
Opposition candidate Lien Chan, however, has filed two lawsuits with the
local high court to nullify the election, alleging that the poll was marred by
numerous voting irregularities.
Zhang also condemned the "peace referendum" that was willfully held by Chen
alongside the election as an immoral move to promote separatism under a veil of
democracy.
The plebiscite turned out to be invalid because less than half of the
eligible voters took part.
The failure of the referendum has "proven that Chen's illegal act to provoke
the mainland and split the motherland goes against the will of the people,"
Zhang said.
In another development, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan Monday urged
Washington to stop its implementation of the Taiwan Relations Act and not to
send any wrong signals to pro-independence forces in Taiwan.
His comment came in response to a recent statement by the State Department
about the US commitment to the act, which was passed by Congress in 1979. It
requires the United States to sell Taiwan weapons to maintain a so-called
self-defence capability.
Kong said the US should strictly abide by the three Sino-US joint communiques
and its commitments to Beijing over the Taiwan issue.
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