China has still to decide whether to scrap its policy of being patient with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) after his comments supporting a referendum on independence, scholars in China said yesterday.
Beijing adopted a wait-and-see policy after Chen won power in 2000, and has said since that it would "listen to his words and watch his actions." But the row sparked by last weekend's remarks was severely testing that approach, the scholars said.
Chinese academics stressed at a Beijing news conference that China's overall policy of emphasizing peaceful reunification with its rival remains unchanged.
But they said Beijing was reviewing how it would deal with Chen, who has since backpedalled and said his remarks were misinterpreted.
Xu Shiquan, head of the Taiwan studies institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said yesterday that policymakers were now discussing their attitude toward Chen.
"Smashing the pot to pieces just because it's cracked would be very bad," he said.
Still, others said Chen had gone too far.
Yan Xuetong, head of the Institute of International Studies at Beijing's Tsinghua University, said Chen had crossed the line by saying there was "one country on each side" of the Strait and backing a referendum.
By adding the referendum, Yan said, Chen's move was even more inflammatory than the "two states theory" raised by Chen's predecessor, Lee Teng-hui (
"Chen Shui-bian's taken it further than the `two states theory,'" he said, and it was unlikely Chinese policymakers would ever work with Chen.
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