Vice President Annette Lu (
"It's a shameful and regrettable matter" that Chirac expressed opposition to the referendum plan and in favor of Beijing simply out of monetary considerations, Lu said.
PHOTO: AFP
"Beijing has enticed Chirac to issue unfavorable remarks on Tai-wan's referendum plan by offering lucrative business opportunities that may arise from the 2008 Bei-jing Olympics and by promising to purchase French weapons," Lu said at a campaign rally in Taoyuan County.
Lu made the statement two days after Chirac warned Taiwan at a state dinner in honor of visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Noting that Chirac's opposition to the referendum initiative goes against the France's founding spirit of upholding freedom and democracy, Lu said all the people of Taiwan should stand up and condemn Chirac.
She also urged all countries to respect and support Taiwan's democratic development.
Lu said Taiwan would not flinch under China's pressure nor be swayed from its determination to hold its first-ever referendum -- against Beijing's missile threat -- to coincide with the March 20 presidential election.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said during a televised interview on Tuesday night that Chirac's linking Taiwan's referendum with a move toward independence which would ultimately lead to war reflected the French leader's ignorance about democracy and undermined the integrity of a democratic France.
"It is understandable that Chirac made such remarks because France has business ties with China," Chen said.
"However if Chirac, like China, treated the universal values of a referendum as something dreadful and compared it to a move toward Taiwan's independence and war, then he is rather ignorant about democracy," Chen said.
The president said that "Taiwan is Taiwan and it is not a place where France has a say in deciding our business."
"It might not cost anything for him [Chirac] to say so, but it does huge damage to France. It's really a pity," Chen said.
The director of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) international affairs department, Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), yesterday said the French leader's remarks have seriously interfered with Taiwan's internal democratic procedures and were a result of China's attempt to use other countries to suppress Taiwan through the promise of weapons purchases.
"Until China denounces the use of force against Taiwan, any countries that sell weapons to China should be [held] responsible for destabilizing peace and regional stability," Hsiao said.
Noting that France had experienced a revolution and even gave the US the Statue of Liberty, a symbol China's young Tiananmen demonstrators used in 1989, Hsiao said France should promote this democratic tradition if it deems itself a democratic nation.
"If France believes itself a democratic nation, it should not just sell weapons to China, but should export freedom, democracy and another statute of liberty to China," Hsiao said.
In related news yesterday, DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (
The lawmaker called upon France to export democracy, not weapons.
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