President Chen Shui-bian (
China's missile deployments and "very hostile posture toward Taiwan" are driving the nation's 23 million people toward de jure independence, Chen said in an interview in Taipei.
"For the people of Taiwan, we see our country as an independent, sovereign state," he said.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen also warned of China's military buildup, saying that it and the country's stance toward Taiwan both posed threats to the Asia-Pacific.
"Instead of a peaceful emergence of China, as it claims, we see it as a military emergence of China," the president said, citing the 988 missiles China has on the coast across from Taiwan.
The number of China's missiles aimed at Taiwan has increased fivefold since Chen took office in 2000 and continues to increase at the rate of 100 to 120 annually, he said.
PHOTO: CHAN CHAO-YANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The missiles, as well as China's refusal to renounce the use of force against Taiwan and the Anti-Secession Law China passed in March 2005, have laid "a legal foundation for a future military invasion of Taiwan" and "are truly provocative gestures," Chen said.
"In the foreseeable future, I don't think that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will go for unification," he added. "Quite the contrary, it is very likely that the actions taken by Beijing authorities will force the people of Taiwan to take more actions toward further independence."
Chen said China's stance toward Taiwan foments support for official independence.
He said because of China's military buildup, its refusal to recognize Taiwan's formal existence and its blockage of Taiwan's efforts to rejoin the UN and launch diplomatic ties with other nations, "it has made Taiwan people more and more aware of their own national identity. Moreover, it has prompted the people to be more persistent in adopting this Taiwan-centric consciousness."
In the interview, Chen thanked the US and Japan for helping boost the nation's defenses but stressed that Taiwan must depend on itself for its defense.
"We have an old saying that goes `If one sits and waits for heavenly provisions, one would starve to death,' so if you only rely on others to defend your country, you are bound to be defeated," Chen said.
Chen said Taiwan had no intention of engaging in any kind of arms race with China but it must enhance its national defense capabilities.
He added, however, that the best defense for the nation was not weapons, but democracy.
"We believe that Taiwan's democracy is a success story and Taiwan's democracy serves as the best missile defense for Taiwan," he said. "Taiwan's success in democracy also is a lighthouse to the 1.3 billion people of China."
POLITICS
Chen said he was confident that his party would win next year's presidential election.
"We believe the next person sitting in this chair will be someone from our party, the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP]. Who will be the one from [the] DPP, I don't know, but I am sure this person will be one from [the] DPP," Chen said.
Chen will step down in May next year after having served two four-year terms. Four DPP officials are expected to register in the party's primary as presidential candidates next week.
"What is certain is on May 20, 2008 I will pass the baton on to the next president," said Chen, adding that it was very unlikely the next president would be former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
While Chen says that Taiwan is a sovereign nation, Ma says that Taipei and Beijing should promote economic cooperation and leave the unification issue to future generations.
Chen hailed the DPP's coming to power in 2000 as an historical achievement, a peaceful change of power and an indication of the public's embracing democracy.
He condemned the KMT's five-decade authoritarian rule and said Taiwan had become a country abiding by the rule of law, and offered as proof embezzlement allegations against him and his family. Chen has denied all charges, but said the allegations are a price to pay for democracy.
In the interview, Chen defended a series of steps he had taken to assert the nation's sovereignty.
These include holding the country's first referendum in 2004 and letting the National Unification Council cease to function and the National Unification Guidelines cease to apply last year.
These moves prompted China, which sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, to pass anti-secession laws and warn that China would recover Taiwan by force if Taipei declared independence or if peaceful means to achieve unification are exhausted.
However, Chen said the issue is in the hands of the Taiwanese people.
"Regarding Taiwan's future and future relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, we leave the choices open to our 23 million people. They can choose according to their free will," he said.
Chen urged China to learn from Taiwan's democracy and its election system.
He also invited the chairman of China's National People's Congress to visit and invited the body to send a delegation to observe the year-end legislative election and the presidential election in May next year.
Chen also urged China's congress to abolish the anti-secession law.
ECONOMICS
Chen said that Taiwan's economy was leaning toward China, gradually becoming reliant on the Chinese market.
"This is indeed a great risk that we are likely to face and we have to be very cautious about this," he said.
However, China is also becoming more dependent on Taiwan through increased economic ties.
"China wants to use its business influence to play more roles in terms of maneuvering and influencing our politics, but the Taiwan businessmen are also becoming more influential in China," he said.
Chen said he hoped that while normalizing trade ties with China, Taiwan could avoid "becoming an appendix to the Chinese economy" and avoid being marginalized.
Since cross-strait tensions began to thaw in the late 1980s, more and more Taiwanese businesses have opened factories in China, taking advantage of its cheap labor and making inroads into the world's largest consumer market.
In recent years, China has replaced the US as Taiwan's top trading partner with 39 percent of exports and 70 percent of outbound investment going to China.
Investment of Taiwanese companies in China totals about US$150 billion, according to an estimate by Taiwan's central bank, but the actual figure could be much higher.
Chen said China was a vast market but Taiwan should not see China as "our only destination, our only market or our last hope."
"It is only one of our very important markets in our strategy to deeply cultivate Taiwan, mapping out and reaching out to the world," he said.
Taiwan would not place its economic lifeline and all its economic resources on the Chinese market, the president said.
"So we are actively promoting the reinvestment in Taiwan by mainland-based Taiwanese businessmen and are encouraging them to bring back their money to Taiwan," Chen said. "We have seen some positive results in the last two years in this regard."
Regarding opening direct links with China, Chen said it should be achieved step by step, starting with charter flights and direct travel and trade between Taiwan's offshore islets and China.
"We have already introduced charter flights for the Lunar New Year holidays and are holding talks concerning weekend charter flights," he said. "We are also discussing allowing Chinese tourists to come to Taiwan on charter flights."
The slow process of opening links, he said, was in order to protect Taiwan's national interests and security.
Taiwan's business sector has also been pressuring the government to increase links to avoid being marginalized in the global economy.
Because of the ban on direct transport to China, Taiwanese must change planes or ships at a third point, usually Hong Kong, increasing the time and cost of travel and transport.
In 2003, Taiwan allowed its airlines to operate charter flights to bring home businessmen for the Lunar New Year. In 2005, it allowed Chinese airlines to join in the Lunar New Year charter flights.
Taiwan and China are holding talks to allow more Chinese tour groups to visit.
Taiwanese officials have hinted that if things go smoothly, Chinese tour groups would start coming on charter flights in the coming months.
In the initial stages, Taiwan plans to allow 1,000 Chinese tourists entry per day and gradually raise the quota, officials have said.
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