Beijing issues harsh threats against Taipei and Chen Shuibian
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) China will crush "sternly, fully and at all costs", Taiwanese president Chen Shuibian's plans for the renouncing the "one-China" policy while seeking Taiwan's full independence.
Such threats were founded in a joint statement released by Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC) and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, reported the Xinhua news agency.
Beijing urged Tawain's president "to carefully choose" over two positions: "pulling back immediately from (Taiwan's) dangerous lurch towards independence, recognizing that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the one and same China and dedicating efforts to closer cross-Straits relations (and) following their separatist agenda to cut Taiwan from the rest of China and, in the end, meet its own destruction by playing with fire."
The statement accused Chen Shuibian of promoting "frenzied provocation", as he has not kept a commitment he made 4 years ago when he was first elected president. It was then that Chen had promised not to change the island's status quo, but nevertheless clearly aimed at obtaining the island's full autonomy with a referendum he called this spring in addition to a program he launched to write a new constitution for the island.
In the statement, we also read: "At present, relations across the Taiwan Strait are severely tested. To put a resolute check on "Taiwan independence" activities, aimed at dismembering China and safeguard peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, is the most pressing task to compatriots on both sides of the Strait.
Chen Shuibian, according to the statement, is also criticized because he "left Taiwan society deeply torn with his vicious mischaracterization of the popular will of the Taiwan people, his unbridled instigation of hostility and animosity towards the mainland.
The statement adds that there will be an end to the economic and diplomatic advantages and an end to hostility should Chen acknowledge the one-China policy advocated by Beijing.
The statement was released just a few days prior to Chen's presidential inauguration, scheduled to take place May 20. Chen's re-election is assured unless a recount of votes underway fails to confirm his proper legal lection to president.
The slight margin of 30,000 votes by which Chen originally won the elections currently seems to have dropped to 20,000, according the latest reports. (MR)
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