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FOREIGN MINISTER CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR TAIWAN'S STATUS

2004-05-17 16:30:28

    Taipei, May 17 (CNA) Minister of Foreign Affairs Tan Sun Chen said Monday Taiwan is a peace-loving country and that he hopes the international community can respect Taiwan's sovereign status.

    Tan Sun Chen was responding to mainland China's latest statement on relations across the Taiwan Strait.

    In an unusual move, the Chinese Communist Party's Taiwan Affairs Office and the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office issued a joint statement at midnight Sunday that held out the prospect of re-starting talks and deepening bilateral ties, but warned that any steps by Taiwan toward independence would be crushed "firmly and thoroughly at any cost."

    The strongly worded statement said that if the Taiwan leaders keep following their separatist agenda to cut Taiwan from the rest of China, they will in the end meet their own destruction by playing with fire. But if the Taiwan leaders recognize a "one China" policy, under which Taiwan and the mainland are part of a single China, and drop independence and "separatist" activities, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can renew negotiations and improve ties, the statement added.

    Tan Sun Chen said Beijing might have felt compelled to issue the statement because President Chen Shui-bian's inauguration for a second four-year term is just around the corner.

    In his view, Tan Sun Chen said the latest Beijing statement is cliche-ridden and contains few fresh initiatives. "The reiteration of its cherished 'one-China' principle betrays Beijing's obstinacy and its failure to progress along with the changing international climate," said Tan Sun Chen.

    Stressing that the "one China" principle can only be a topic for discussions, Tan Sun Chen said, it cannot be a principle or precondition for resumption of cross-strait dialogue.

    As Beijing has often said it pins high hopes on the people of Taiwan, Tan Sun Chen said Beijing's issuance of the statement just ahead of President Chen's inauguration might reflect its worries about a rising Taiwan identity as shown in the result of the March 20 presidential election. "President Chen has campaigned on a platform emphasizing a separate Taiwan identity and he garnered more than 1.5 million mover votes this time around than four years ago," Tan Sun Chen said.

    Noting that Taiwan is a peace-loving country, Chen said he hopes the international community will respect the free will of a sovereign country like Taiwan.

(BY Sofia Wu)

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