|
Official: 'Chen is a saboteur of peace'
By Xing Zhigang (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-09 05:30
Beijing yesterday slammed Taiwan "president" Chen Shui-bian as a
"troublemaker" and "peace saboteur" while condemning his plan to scrap the
island's guidelines on unification with the mainland.
Li Weiyi, spokesman
of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, invites a question from
reporters at a press conference in this January 24, 2006 photo. Li said
February 8 that Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian is a troublemaker and
saboteur of cross-Straits ties and Asia-Pacific peace and stability.
[newsphoto] | Li Weiyi, spokesman for the Taiwan
Affairs Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, said Chen's scheme "fully
exposed his obstinate adherence to his pro-independence stance."
"This demonstrates once again that he is a troublemaker and saboteur of
cross-Straits ties and peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region," he told
a regular press briefing.
Li was commenting on Chen's January 29 speech in which he proposed abolishing
Taiwan's "national unification council" and its guidelines on unification with
the mainland.
The council, Taiwan's top policy-making body on ultimate reunification with
the mainland, was set up in October 1990 by the then Kuomintang (KMT)
administration.
Chen, from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has
virtually kept the council dormant since he took office in May 2000, ending the
KMT's 51-year rule over the island.
Li accused Chen of publicly betraying his own "four no's plus one" commitment
in his 2000 inauguration speech by seeking to eliminate the guidelines and the
council.
Chen is actually aiming to push for "de jure independence" for Taiwan through
"constitutional re-engineering," Li said.
In his "four no's" pledge, Chen said he would not declare "independence,"
change the "national title," incorporate the concept of "state-to-state"
relations between the island and the mainland in its "constitution," or promote
any referendum on changing the status quo in regard to independence.
The Taiwan leader had also promised not to abandon the unification guidelines
and the council.
Chen's latest move is widely considered a touchstone of his cross-Straits
policy because dissolving the unification council and its guidelines would be
tantamount to changing the cross-Straits status quo.
Following Chen's January 29 statement, even the United States Taiwan's main
supplier of arms delivered a swift rebuke for his "inflammatory" comments.
State Department spokesman J. Adam Ereli said on January 30 that Washington
"opposes any unilateral change to the status quo by either side."
At yesterday's news conference, Li quickly drew a line between the
secessionist forces led by Chen and ordinary people.
He stressed that Beijing would not change its solemn commitment to the Taiwan
people because of Chen's deliberate provocation.
"We will do anything that benefits the Taiwan compatriots," he said.
As another goodwill gesture towards Taiwan people, the mainland authorities
yesterday agreed to resume providing the island with fishermen ahead of the
upcoming fishing season.
Tang Wei, director of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Department
under the Ministry of Commerce, told the news conference that fishing trade
organizations from across the Straits will soon sign agreements on the issue.
Beijing banned fishermen from working for Taiwan
companies in December 2001 to protest against the island's discrimination
against mainland fishermen hired by Taiwan fishing firms, which once employed
45,000 mainland workers.
|
