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KMT CHAIRMAN'S 'ARMS CONTROL TALKS' PROPOSAL RIDICULED BY DPP GOV'T

2003-12-07 16:57:31

    Taipei, Dec. 7 (CNA) Executive Yuan spokesman Lin Chia-lung said Sunday that the "cross-strait arms control talks" proposed by opposition Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan as one of his presidential election campaign promises could only lead Taiwan into a perilous situation.

    Lien vowed at a gathering marking the establishment of the national campaign headquarters of the "pan-blue alliance" presidential ticket of Lien and his running mate, People First Party Chairman James Soong, that if he is elected the next president, he will see to it that the Taiwan leadership and its mainland Chinese counterpart meet for cross-strait arms control talks.

    Commenting on Lien's proposal, Lin said the "cross-strait arms control talks" initiative is unrealistic regardless of whether viewed from the angle of Taiwan's security, U.S.-Taiwan relations, or the actual arms preparedness situation on the two sides of the strait.

    Lin said Lien's "cross-strait arms control talks" initiative reflects how poor and wrong Lien's knowledge of international affairs is.

    Ridiculing Lien's remarks that he will propose that Taiwan and mainland China engage in arms control talks in the same way that the United States and the former Soviet Union engaged in nuclear disarmament talks in 1969, Lin said that cross-strait arms control talks and the U.S.-USSR disarmament talks are as different as "apples and oysters."

    Lin said that if the two sides indeed began the cross-strait arms control talks, Beijing would undoubtedly link the talks with the issue of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan as a bargaining chip. This scenario, he said, would eventually put Taiwan in a dangerous situation.

    Lin stressed that only by Beijing being required to unconditionally remove missiles and other arms deployed opposite Taiwan can the two sides exist on an equal footing so that cross-strait peace can prevail.

(By Deborah Kuo)

ENDITEM/Li