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MAC, Lee respond to white paper

Published: February 29, 2000
Source: News reports

Chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council Su Chi formally responded to Beijing's latest Taiwan white paper on Friday, saying that the mainland was attempting to interfere in the upcoming presidential election, and that by threatening to use force Beijing was actually damaging prospects for unification.

Su was quoted by the Taiwan News as saying that: "We have to make it clear ¡K no way can our determination to safeguard the democratic system and national sovereignty be changed."

The MAC chief added that mainland China's "repeated and intentional attempts to heighten military intimidation during the critical election period have exposed how much it fears and repels democracy."

Su urged Beijing to return to the "one China, with each side free to make its own interpretation" formula agreed by the two sides in 1992: He said that President Lee Teng-hui's "special state-to-state relations" description of cross-strait ties represented Taipei's interpretation of the "one-China" principle.

Describing the white paper as "very unfriendly," Su stated that the policy document would further alienate Taiwan's people from the concept of unification.

One analyst reacted to Su's robust defense of Taipei's position by saying it could exacerbate cross-strait tensions. "It is a little bit too strong when the U.S. has already reacted strongly," Shih Chih-yu, a political scientist at National Taiwan University, was quoted by the Taipei Times as saying.

Joseph Wu, a research fellow at the Institute for International Relations at National Chengchi University, disagreed, however. Wu told the Taipei Times: "Compared to the low-key verbal responses made right after mainland China issued its policy paper, [this] formal response is stronger, but not to a degree that could be deemed provocative to mainland China. The U.S. has used strong words, so Taiwan can afford to be nicer. Overall, it was not too bad a response."

President Lee meanwhile issued his own response to Beijing's latest belligerence on Friday evening. According to the Taipei Times, while in Kaohsiung he told a gathering of businessmen: "Communist China says it is going to use force if we don't talk with them. It's hegemony. Mainland China is like a hooligan."

At another gathering on Saturday, Lee told his audience that Beijing should treat Taipei as an equal, and said that other countries would speak up on Taiwan's behalf, even if Taiwan remained silent about the mainland's threats.