China described President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday as "immoral" and warned Taiwanese voters not to be tempted by his pro-independence platform in the March 20 election.
"In seeking his personal re-election, Chen has put the tangible interests of the Taiwan people at stake," National People's Congress spokesman Jiang Enzhu (
"This is indeed very immoral," he said.
"We understand and respect the Taiwan compatriots' desire for developing democracy, but we firmly oppose Taiwan authorities' pursuit of Taiwan independence and any splittist activities under the cloak of democracy," Jiang said.
He said Chen had stirred up the "indignation and condemnation" of China's 1.3 billion people.
It is the latest salvo in the war of words being orchestrated by Beijing ahead of the elections.
At Wednesday's opening session of the China People's Political Consultative Conference, chairman Jia Qinglin (
"We must unswervingly uphold the one-China policy, resolutely oppose separatist activities of any sort that are designed to bring about Taiwan independence and never allow anybody to separate Taiwan from China by any means," Jia said.
But despite the obvious distaste of China's leaders for Chen, Beijing has so far appeared to approach the elections more calmly than earlier elections.
Ballistic missile tests and military exercises ahead of presidential elections in 1996 and 2000 worked to push voters away from Beijing's preferred candidate and resulted in Chen's 2000 election.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
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IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
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