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China rattles the saber once again

"We will take all necessary measures to ensure the nation's territorial integrity, including the use of weapons." Zhang Mingqing, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office PHOTO: AP

China yesterday brought new fire to Taiwan's ongoing election campaign by restating Beijing's pledge to take the nation by force if its leaders move closer toward openly declaring independence.

Taiwan's leaders were showing "increasingly vocal opposition" to a previous consensus between the foes, said Zhang Mingqing (張銘清), spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office.

Zhang said that if Taiwan continued in this way, "it could end up leading to new tensions or even conflict."

Zhang said the only way to avoid further strains would be for Taiwan's leaders to return to a 1992 position that Beijing says recognized the so-called "one China principle," stating that China and Taiwan are indivisible parts of a single country.

If this does not happen "we will take all necessary measures to ensure the nation's territorial integrity, including the use of weapons," Zhang said.

Campaigning is well underway for legislative, city and county elections to be held on Dec. 1.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is striving to win a majority in the legislature, where it now holds just 30 percent of the 225 seats.

The KMT still holds a slim majority despite losing a presidential election for the first time last year.

China has a history of saber-rattling ahead of Taiwanese elections, most dramatically before the 1996 presidential poll when it test fired missiles over the island.

Relations between the two have been hurting since Beijing refused to allow a leading Taiwan delegate to attend the APEC forum leaders' summit in Shanghai last month.

At campaign rallies across Taiwan in the past week, Chen has branded Beijing "arrogant" and "barbaric" for barring him from the summit and rejecting his chosen representative, former vice president Li Yuan-zu (李元簇).
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