Angry Cabinet suspends exchanges with France

The Cabinet is temporarily suspending high-ranking exchanges with France to protest French President Jacques Chirac's comments on Taiwan's planned referendum, Premier Yu Shyi-kun announced yesterday.

"We feel extremely sorry about Chirac's bowing to China and caving in to commercial interests. His talk not only is detrimental to our democratic development but also violates the true spirit of freedom and democracy," Yu said.

Under the premise of reciprocity, Yu said, the government will make adjustments to the relationship between the two countries in accordance with the French government's sincerity in resolving the matter.

Yu made the remarks yesterday morning after attending the monthly meeting of the Cabinet's Veterans Affairs Commission.

According to Yu, the Cabinet learned details of Chirac's talks on Saturday, two days before Chirac publicly denounced the referendum proposed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

"We decided to adopt a counterattack measure and asked two Cabinet officials to cancel their scheduled trips to France," Yu said.

The two officials are National Science Council Chairman Wei Che-ho (魏哲和) and of Council for Cultural Affairs Chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀).

Wei, who is on a trip to Europe, will remove France from his itinerary and stay only in Germany to promote scientific collaboration between the two countries. Tchen has cancelled a trip to France scheduled from Wednesday to Feb 8.

While the suspension of exchanges applies to high-ranking officials only, cultural and economic exchanges are unaffected, Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) told reporters yesterday.

Lin said that Taiwan, as an independent sovereign state, is obliged to unequivocally express its stance.

"We should express our stance in a firm and appropriate manner but never overreact," he said. "As Chirac's comments are merely political language made in response to the request of visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), we're still evaluating the impact it has on the French government's Taiwan policy."

Lin, however, warned the French government that indulging China was quixotic.

"It might acquire some short-term gain from China but end up being manipulated by it," Lin said. "What EU nations and other countries should do while dealing with China is to collaborate with each other under a strong leadership instead of fighting the battle alone."

Also see story:

Chen repudiates Chirac for 'interfering'