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NATIONAL IDENTITY DISPARITY THREATENS NATIONAL SECURITY: PRESIDENT

ROC Central News Agency

2005-12-23 18:31:00

    Taipei, Dec. 23 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Friday that the national identity disparity among the Taiwan people is posing the greatest challenge to the country's security.

    According to Chen, only if the people have a clear idea as to who is the country's biggest enemy will they be able to unite their strength to establish a strong national defense system and overcome natural and geographical restrictions to expand the depth of the country's defense strategy.

    As long as the national identity disparity is resolved, inter-party disagreements over the government's arms procurement package with the United States will no longer exist, Chen said.

    Chen made the remarks during a luncheon with a group of presidential advisers. Earlier that day, legislators of the opposition "pan-blue alliance" of the Kuomintang and People First Party sent the arms procurement bill back to the legislature's Procedure Committee by voting to dismiss Friday's plenary session. "Pan-blue" lawmakers had barred the bill from being included in the legislative agenda on 41 occasions over the past year. It was finally placed on Friday's legislative agenda -- when it was supposed to go through the first reading -- after the "pan-green" camp pushed it through the Procedure Committee two days ago.

    The president said although the Taiwanese identity has become the mainstream value in Taiwan society today, there are still more than 10 percent of the people who identify with the old national identity that considers China to be their mother country.

    Chen said the spirit and value of integration of the European Union can be a reference model, but not the only one, for the future development of cross-Taiwan Strait relations.

    He said the EU principles of sovereignty, parity, democracy and peace are of great reference for Taiwan and China, pointing out that all EU member nations accept each other as independent sovereign states on equal footing.

(By Y.F. Low)ENDTEM/mw