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Lu fires salvo at Beijing days ahead of Bush visit

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), branded by Beijing as a "lunatic" and "traitor," on Saturday dismissed the "one China" principle.

Lu's remarks, which came ahead of US President George W. Bush's week-long Asian trip, are likely to infuriate Beijing.

In a speech Saturday through videoconferencing to hundreds of Taiwanese or Taiwanese American students from Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other US universities, Lu said anyone who insisted on "one China" was insane.

"Yes, it is just like `there is only one US, one United Kingdom, or one Japan in the world.' No one would object to it. But no American, British or Japanese would keep saying that," Lu said, according to a statement released late Saturday by the Presidential Office.

"If someone always repeats this, there should be two reasons. Reason one: That man is insane. Reason two: The fact is not so, and therefore it has to be emphasized again and again until other people are forced to accept it," she said.

Lu said she preferred a "one Chinese" concept to "one China."

"People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait use the same language and are of the same blood. I believe we can all agree that both sides belong to the same Chinese culture," she said.

Beijing has been highly critical of the vice president, describing her as a "lunatic" and "traitor" after she said Chinese were "remote relatives" to Taiwanese.

Lu also ridiculed China's peace overture of "one country, two systems" -- the mechanism Beijing uses to rule both Hong Kong and Macau.

The political design "itself has indicated that one of the two systems is not good enough, otherwise why bother to have a second system?" she said.

"Instead of `one country, two systems,' I would rather suggest that both China and Taiwan set up one system first -- the system of freedom and democracy," she said.

In a roundtable of Asian reporters on the eve of his departure, Bush said he would stress during his tour Washington's view that the standoff between Taiwan and China must end with "peaceful resolution."

"I emphasize peaceful resolution, that there should be no provocation by either side in order for there to be peaceful resolution," he said.

Zhang Mingqing (張銘清), spokesman for China's State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, last month said that both President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Lu were not welcome in China despite a recent invitation by Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen (錢其琛) for DPP members to visit.
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