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TAIWAN WILL CONTINUE TO COMMUNICATE WITH U.S. OVER REFERENDUM ISSUE

2003-12-10 17:22:20

    Washington, Dec. 9 (CNA) The Republic of China's representative to the United States said Tuesday that Taiwan will continue to communicate with the United States on the referendum issue.

    Chen Chien-jen made the remarks in the wake of remarks by U.S. President George W. Bush on the cross-Taiwan Strait situation after his meeting with mainland Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the White House.

    Asked to comment on ROC President Chen Shui-bian's proposed plan to hold a referendum on March 20, 2004, Bush said that "we oppose any unilateral decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo" and "the comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally to change the status quo, which we oppose," he added.

    In a telephone interview with CNA, Chen would not speculate on Bush's words or their possible effect on Taiwan's plan to hold a "defensive referendum" to demand that Beijing dismantle its missiles aimed at Taiwan and to renounce the use of military force, but he expressed the hope that the government's push for referendum in three aspects be understood.

    First, Chen said, Taiwan "cannot accept" mainland China seeing the referendum, which is an exercise in democracy, to be a referendum on independence.

    Chen continued that the proposed referendum does not involve issues on either unification or independence and that it will not go beyond the pledges that the president made in his inaugural speech of 2000 in which he promised not to hold a referendum on the status of the nation and not to change the status quo.

    Chen said that it is unfair to see Beijing's missile threat against Taiwan as "normal" on the one hand, and Taiwan's worry over this threat as "provocation" on the other.

    Chen said that he has yet to explain this to the United States, but he pointed out that this is the attitude of Taipei on the issue, and he added that the government will continue to communicate with Washington.

    Chen refused to comment on whether he felt Bush's words were beneficial or detrimental to Taiwan.

(By Jay Chen and Lilian Wu)

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