DATE=4/10/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-TAIWAN (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-261116
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: China has renewed its attacks on Taiwan's
Vice-President-elect, Annette Lu, describing her as a
lunatic whose advocacy of independence could bring
disaster to the island. VOA correspondent Roger
Wilkison reports Monday is the third straight day in
which China's state-owned news media have attacked Ms.
Lu as a pro-independence extremist.
TEXT: After opposition candidate Chen Shui-bian was
elected as Taiwan's new president on March 18th, China
adopted an attitude of restraint and said it would
wait and see what he says and does after his
inauguration next month. China does not like Mr. Chen
because his party's platform advocates formal
independence for the island that China considers a
wayward province. But Mr. Chen backed away from that
position during the campaign and made conciliatory
gestures toward Beijing after he was elected.
Although it has not attacked Mr. Chen, China has,
since Saturday, launched a barrage of invective
against Vice-President-elect Lu, calling her -among
other things-- the scum of the Chinese nation and a
notorious advocate of independence.
What apparently riled Beijing was an interview Ms. Lu
gave a Hong Kong cable TV station last week. She was
quoted as saying the relationship between China and
Taiwan is that of distant relatives. That, in
Beijing's eyes, is tantamount to denying that Taiwan
is an inseparable part of China, and, therefore, casts
her in the role of a dangerous separatist.
China stepped up the attacks on Ms. Lu on Monday. A
front-page commentary in the People's Daily -the
Communist Party newspaper- asks how Taiwanese can feel
at ease with what it calls a lunatic advocate of
Taiwan independence who could bring disaster to Taiwan
at any time. In its words, Ms. Lu intends to push
Taiwan into the abyss of war.
Meanwhile, President-elect Chen told the Washington
Post, Beijing's insistence that he acknowledge that
Taiwan is part of China is hindering the resumption of
cross-strait talks. Mr. Chen says most Taiwanese
reject Beijing's version of the one-China principle,
which holds that Taiwan is a mere province of China.
China has been stepping up pressure on Mr. Chen to
sign on to the one-China principle as a pre-condition
for talks. (SIGNED)
NEB/RW/FC
10-Apr-2000 05:24 AM EDT (10-Apr-2000 0924 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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