Beijing: Chen provoking 'serious crisis'
(AP/Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-02-26 18:22

Ignoring Beijing's condemnation, Chen Shui-bian has refused to go back on his decision to dismantle the "national unification council" and the 15-year-old guidelines on unification with the mainland.

In Taipei, the Taiwan leader reportedly told visiting US Congressman Rob Simmons Wednesday that the council and the guidelines should be abolished "since they exclude the option of independence for Taiwan."

Last month, Chen Shui-bian first proposed scrapping the guidelines and the council, which was set up in October 1990 by then KMT administration as the island's top policy-making body on ultimate unification with the mainland.

If Chen Shui-bian dissolved the council and the guidelines, he would break a promise he made in his 2000 inauguration speech not to do so.