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Chen slams peace overture as akin to `treaty of surrender'

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on Thursday denounced a peace overture from Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), saying it would be like agreeing to "a treaty of surrender."

"It is very clear now that if we were to sign such a peace treaty under the framework of the `one China' principle, then I think this would mean, for the 23 million people of Taiwan, a treaty of surrender," Chen said in a 90-minute interview at the Presidential Office.

The interview was published on Thursday.

On Monday, Hu suggested during his speech at the opening of the Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing that China and Taiwan conclude a peace agreement ending the formal state of hostility that has endured since Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) Nationalists lost China's civil war in 1949 and retreated to Taiwan.

But the offer carried a longstanding Chinese condition rejected by most Taiwanese politicians: that negotiations can proceed only under the principle that there is one China, with Taiwan and China representing indivisible components of a single nation ruled from Beijing.

That condition makes it unlikely that Hu's somewhat vague proposal, which included eventual unification of Taiwan with China, could serve as a basis for negotiations.

"Taiwan is an independent, sovereign country; Taiwan is not part of China, nor is Taiwan a local government of the People's Republic of China," Chen said during the interview, reiterating a formulation that he has been using lately to the irritation of Beijing officials.

In an interview last month, Wu Jianmin (吳建民), one of China's top diplomats for two decades and currently the president of the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, which is affiliated with China's Foreign Ministry, said of Chen: "His problem is he loves to make trouble."

"People don't like tension, and he likes tension, and whenever he can he does what he can to increase tensions," he said.

It was Chen who chose to schedule an interview during the Communist Party Congress in Beijing, a politically sensitive time when the Chinese government tries to avoid domestic and international disputes.

Chen made clear on Thursday that he has an equal dislike of Hu.

"Hu is a formidable rival, sharp yet merciless," Chen said. "He is like a smiling tiger, hiding a dagger in a smile, with honey in his mouth but a sword at his stomach."

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was more receptive to Hu's offer of peace talks.

In a phone interview later on Thursday he said, "In general, it is in conformity with our party's platform."

Ma, said his party maintained its position that there is "one China," but that Taiwan and China have different interpretations of what this means.

He also said talks with China should be about a peace pact, not Taiwan's future, which should be decided only by the Taiwanese.

"The mainland side should remove the almost 1,000 missiles targeted against Taiwan, and they should do it before we start negotiations," he said.

Ma's Democratic Progressive Party counterpart Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) has not granted interviews to the foreign news media during his campaign.

Hsieh said to local reporters on Tuesday that he could accept a peace agreement with China provided that the people of Taiwan held the initiative in making decisions and provided that any agreement gave Taiwan a "dignified relationship" with China.

"He doesn't want to burn any bridges to future possibilities of dialogue," said Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), the foreign affairs director of Hsieh's campaign.

Chen's continuing criticism of Beijing has made Hsieh appear more moderate. That has prompted questions of whether Chen and Hsieh, who have worked together for two decades, are secretly coordinating a policy of seeming to take divergent policies toward China to ensure Hsieh's election.

"None of us opposes the idea of signing a peace treaty, but everybody has different preconditions and different conditions of accepting this proposal," Chen said. "Hu has his version and Ma has his conditions, Hsieh has his conditions and I have my own insistence."
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