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Chinese media froth at the mouth

Beijing residents walk past a newsstand where a headline reads, ``Chen Shui-bian sworn in amid protests'' in Beijing yesterday. PHOTO: AP

As Beijing turned to the US for sympathy, Chinese state media yesterday slammed President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as a "slippery politician" bent on pushing the nation toward formal independence, despite the conciliatory tone of his inauguration speech.

Beijing issued no direct res-ponse to Chen's speech on Thursday, but a statement issued by China's Foreign Ministry hours after he was sworn in called him the "biggest threat" to regional peace.

Late yesterday, China then urged the US not to be fooled by the "deceptive manner" of the Taiwan authorities after Washington praised the speech.

"We again urge the United States to see through the deceptive manner of the Taiwan authorities," ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (劉建超) said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site.

Major newspapers, meanwhile, focused on anti-Chen protests and quoted Chinese academics who denounced his motives.

"Chen Shui-bian's speech cannot cover up true intent of Taiwan independence," read a headline in the Beijing News, which had a photo of an anti-Chen protester.

Chen "painstakingly dodged the one-China question and it was impossible to see any sincerity toward improving relations across the Taiwan Strait," it said. "Rather, it used flowery language and played word games, concealing his `Taiwan independence' splittist position. Cross-strait relations in the next four years will remain in crisis."

An editorial in the China Daily proclaimed: "Chen Shui-bian's latest offer of `goodwill' turns out to be another sham."

Chen's speech appeared to be an attempt to smooth things over with Beijing and assure the US he wasn't trying to start a war with China. But the Chinese press disagreed.

"His latest inaugural address is once again gaudily decorated with such `universal human values' as `public welfare,' `freedom and democracy' as well as `peace and goodwill,'" the China Daily said. "Chen's promise not to constitutionalize the `two states' theory has never prevented him from treating Taiwan and the mainland as two sovereign entities, including in yesterday's speech.

"Many wonder whether his domestic audience was the main target of Chen's speech. What most of the overseas audience heard, however, were the very latest and the most beguiling words of a slippery politician," it concluded.

A Chinese ministry official who refused to give his name said the ministry's statement was a response to US criticism of Bei-jing's warning on Monday that it would crush any moves toward Taiwan independence.

Chinese academics quoted yesterday by Chinese media expressed skepticism about Chen's motives.

Fan Xizhou (范希周), a professor at the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University, said in the China Daily that Chen's "pro-independence stance can be sensed everywhere within his 5,000-word inauguration address.

"Behind all the soft words is his hard will to cling to a separatist stance and forge ahead with his pro-independence agenda," he said.
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