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CHEN'S OFFICE ISSUES ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF HIS CONTROVERSIAL SPEECH

Aug 07, 2002 22:25 UTC+0800

Taipei, Aug. 7 (CNA) The Presidential office posted on its Web site Wednesday an English-translation of President Chen Shui-bian's Aug. 3 speech in which he characterized Taiwan and mainland China as two separate countries, raising eyebrows in both Taipei and Beijing.

The translation was a result of much discussion among the president's aides who have racked their brains about how to explain Chen's viewpoints precisely in English.

According to the English transcript of Chen's speech, the paragraph at the center of the storm reads as follows:

"Taiwan and China standing on opposite sides of the Strait, there is one country on each side. This should be clear."

The statement, considered by Beijing leaders and Chen's critics in Taipei as the closet remarks ever made by Chen to a declaration of Taiwan's permanent separation from the mainland, sent shock waves through Taipei and Beijing.

Chen's political foes at home jumped on the chance to blame him for betraying promise he made in his inaugural speech that he would not declare Taiwan's independence.

Knowing that they could fuel the controversy by giving an inappropriate English expression of Chen's idea, the president's aides refused to provide an official translation of Chen's speech until Wednesday, after the president's administration and his Democratic Progressive Party took pains to play down the political significance of the speech.

However, Huang Chih-fang, the director of the public affairs department under the Presidential Office, cautioned that the message in Chen's speech has been more accurately embodied in the four-point explanation made by Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen on Sunday and the five-point explanation made by DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung on Tuesday.

The full text of the president's statement can be found in the news release section for Aug. 3 at: www.president.gov.tw.

(By Maubo Chang)