Government leaders lash out at China

The president and vice president yesterday attacked China for threat-ening Taiwan militarily, saying it would only push Taiwan away from unification.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) told a visiting US professor yesterday said that Taiwan has been going its own way, which has been very different from China's way.

"Universal values such as freedom, democracy and human rights have been realized in Taiwan, while mainland China still hasn't implemented them," Chen said.

Taiwan underwent a peaceful transition of political power two years ago and is now a democratic country, Chen said, but China is still an authoritarian regime where people can't elect their nation's leader.

"This is the biggest difference between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait," he said.

Chen praised his guest, Richard Kagan, a professor at Hamline University in the US, for his outstanding contribution to human rights in East Asia.

"Professor Kagan has testified to public hearings of the US Congress and spoke out about the real human-rights situation in Taiwan and helped international human-rights organizations rescue dissidents in Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s," Chen said, adding that these actions had inspired many Taiwanese to seek justice and democracy.

The president said that Taiwan was now aggressively developing measures to promote human rights, including establishing the national Human Rights Committee and enhancing cooperation with international human-rights organizations.

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) also weighed in against China yesterday. She accused Beijing of continually expanding its military budget, saying it would only force everyone in Taiwan away from Beijing's hegemony.

Lu said recent remarks by Chi Haotian (遲浩田), defense minister and vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, about using force against Taiwan to pursue reunification demonstrated Beijing leaders' ignorance about the Taiwanese.

"Those remarks, which [Chinese] politicians have wasted their time in repeating, do nothing but push Taiwan away from reunification," Lu said. "They should concentrate more on their own people's interests."

Lu said that Taiwan was not a threat to China, "but if the Beijing authorities bully Taiwan too much and endanger Taiwan's security, then Taiwan will have no choice, and the Beijing authorities will have to take responsibility for creating such a situation."

"According to the United States' evaluation, China increased its budget for weapons by 65 billion yuan," Lu said. "Think about it: how many people would receive better care if this money was used on improving the country's welfare system."