Chen's tough stance was planned

"Our efforts to facilitate the other side seems neither to have helped reconciliation between the ruling DPP and the opposition alliance, nor to break through the deadlock between the two sides of the Strait," said a DPP heavyweight.

"The president can't waste his time any more waiting for them to change," the aide said, "and Taiwanese can't just watch the opportunity drift away and see themselves become bargaining chips in the hands of these unpredictable enemies."

A senior advisor of the National Security Council (NSC) revealed that efforts to tighten the government's China policy is part of a plan that had been discussed by top officials of the govern-ment.

The advisor says it has also been agreed that the president will adopt a tougher attitude against Beijing. However, he admitted that "one country on either side" was not the statement that officials thought the president would use.

"The influence of those words is obviously too intense and the government and the whole national-security system need to re-evaluate the possible side-effects," the official said.

Another heavyweight of the NSC expressed his concerns that the internal political development of China remains ambiguous. "And whether Jiang Zemin (江澤民) will hand over his power requires further observation. It does not do Taiwan any good to make waves in the cross-strait situation right now," he said.

"The president may perhaps be trying to break the impasse," he said, "but an even more important priority is to ask `what is the goal of opening up the impasse?'"