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Chen's move 'will trigger serious crisis'
By Xing Zhigang (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-27 05:20
Beijing issued a fresh warning to Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian yesterday,
telling him to immediately drop the "dangerous" plan to scrap the island's
council and guidelines on unification with the mainland.
A statement released by the cabinet-level Taiwan Affairs Office said Chen's
scheme is aimed at paving the way for Taiwan's de jure "independence" through
the "constitutional re-engineering" project.
"The escalated secessionist push of Chen Shui-bian will certainly trigger a
serious crisis across the Taiwan Straits and destroy peace and stability in the
Asia-Pacific region," it said.
"This has proved that 'pro-independence' activities are the biggest threat to
cross-Straits peace ... and Chen Shui-bian is really a troublemaker to Taiwan,
cross-Straits ties and the Asia-Pacific region."
The statement comes as Chen presses ahead with his plan to dissolve the
council and the guidelines, which reportedly could happen as early as tomorrow.
The Taiwan leader inflamed new tension in the Straits last month by proposing
to dismantle the guidelines and the council, set up in 1990 by the then
Kuomintang administration as the island's top policy-making body on ultimate
unification with the mainland.
If Chen abandons the council and the guidelines, he would break a promise
during his 2000 inauguration speech not to do so. He renewed that promise in
2004 after he was narrowly re-elected for a second and final term.
The mainland statement said Chen's move to breach his own promise signifies
"the bankruptcy of his political faith and moral personality."
"He is gambling with cross-Straits peace and the interests of all Taiwan
people to take a more extreme secessionist path," it noted.
The document accused Chen of inciting tensions to distract public attention
from his political and economic failings.
"Chen Shui-bian is doomed to get into more trouble as he attempts to break
away from troubles through measures harmful to Taiwan people," it said, adding
"Taiwan independence" will never be tolerated.
Along with Beijing's stepped-up pressure on Chen, the United States has also
launched another effort to persuade Chen to retain the "national unification
council."
Taipei-based United Daily News reported that Richard Armitage, former US
deputy secretary of state, is to visit Taiwan to warn Chen of the possible
negative impacts on regional stability if he went ahead with his controversial
proposal.
Analysts believe that Armitage's visit is Washington's last-ditch effort to
convince Chen to abandon his plan because the United States fears eliminating
the guidelines could be another step of Chen's efforts to push for
"independence."
Local newspapers have said Washington's envoy Dennis Wilder, the acting
National Security Council director for Asia, quietly visited Taipei over the
issue earlier this month, but Chen has refused to back down.
In a related development, Singapore said on Friday it opposed Taiwan's
"unilateral" moves to scrap guidelines for unification with the Chinese
mainland.
A spokesman for the city-state's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a
statement this would be "unhelpful" to cross-Straits relations.
(China Daily 02/27/2006 page1)
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