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Chen's call for talks hides real intentions
By Xing Zhigang (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-10-13 00:02
Beijing firmly rejected Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian's call for cross-Straits
talks Wednesday, saying his intensified separatist activities have betrayed his
peace overture.
Zhang Mingqing, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State
Council, warned that Chen's obstinate pro-independence drive will bring the
island catastrophe rather than stability and prosperity.
Zhang Mingqing,
spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said Chen
Shui-bian's speech on October 10 constitutes to a grave provocation to
peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait at a press conference
Wednesday morning in Beijing. Chen solicits a question in this November
26, 2003 file photo at a press conference in Beijing.
[newsphoto] | His comments came at a regular news
conference after Chen called on Sunday for peace talks and "code of conduct"
across the Taiwan Straits.
In a "national day" speech, the Taiwan leader said his administration is
willing to prepare for the resumption of bilateral negotiations on the basis of
the 1992 meeting in Hong Kong.
Zhang, however, described Chen's peace proposal as "nothing but a lie to
deceive the Taiwanese public and international opinion."
He noted that Chen's advocacy of Taiwan as an independent country throughout
his speech represents another grave provocation to cross-Straits peace and
stability.
"Is there any point in his call for bilateral negotiations when Chen
stubbornly sticks to his separatist stance of 'one country on each side' (of the
Taiwan Straits)?" the spokesman asked.
He suggested that cross-Straits dialogue will not be resumed unless Taipei
accepts an informal verbal agreement reached at the 1992 meeting that both sides
of the Taiwan Straits adhere to the one-China principle.
Beijing has called the informal deal the 1992 Consensus, which led to a
series of ice-breaking meetings between Taiwan and the mainland.
Chen, however, has denied the existence of the 1992 consensus in a bid to
shun the one-China principle that both Taiwan and the mainland are part of
China.
Zhang stressed that the Taiwan leader has stepped up his push for formal
independence since he started his second four-year term in May.
Under Chen's leadership, the Taiwan authorities have been forging ahead with
the so-called "constitutional" re-engineering project to permanently split the
island from China.
Meanwhile, the island is accelerating its arms build-up through a plan to buy
NT$610.8 billion (US$18.2 billion) worth of US-manufactured anti-missile
systems, planes and submarines.
Taiwan "premier" Yu Shyi-kun has even called for a "balance of terror" across
the Straits to counter the mainland's fight against "Taiwan independence.''
"Chen claims he wants to ease cross-Straits tension and confrontation, but
his remarks irresponsibly seek to attack the mainland in order to undermine
bilateral ties," Zhang told the press conference.
"All the facts have proven that his conciliatory move is false and his
pro-independence bid is true."
The spokesman cautioned that Chen's separatist push is the root cause of the
severe cross-Straits situation and "Taiwan independence'' poses the biggest
threat to peace in the Straits as well as security in the Asia-Pacific region.
As safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity is in the core
interests of China, the Chinese people will never allow anybody to split Taiwan
from the motherland in any form, according to Zhang.
He called on Taiwan compatriots to join with the mainland in opposing Taiwan
independence and maintaining cross-Straits peace.
"The pursuit of 'Taiwan independence' does not lead to peace, nor national
dismemberment to stability," Zhang said.
"Chen's further push for independence will bring about great disasters
instead of stability and prosperity to the island."
As for Taipei's proposed charter flights across the Straits in the 2005
Spring Festival, Zhang said the air links should be taken as domestic affairs
and in line with the principle of being direct, two-way and mutually reciprocal.
That means both Taiwan and mainland airlines should be allowed to operate
charter flights without stopovers in a third place.
During the 2003 Spring Festival period, Beijing agreed to a charter flight
scheme that required charter planes to travel via Hong Kong or Macao and
completely excluded the participation of mainland airlines.
But the indirect and one-way charter flight programme was finally grounded
during the 2004 Spring Festival because of Taiwan's refusal to allow these
flights to be direct and two-way.
The island has banned direct air and shipping links with the mainland for
more than five decades.
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