A Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper launched an indirect attack on Vice President Lien Chan (3s戰) yesterday, directed at comments Lien made on Monday, and warned Taiwan not to go "against the flow of history."
A commentary in Wen Wei Po (
"Is peaceful reunification not good? Why can't it be accepted? Or does Taiwan instead want the mainland [China] to use force to resolve the matter?" the commentary asked.
Without directly naming Lien, who blasted Chinese President Jiang Zemin (
"Someone yesterday declared, `The Republic of China on Taiwan is not a colony' and `We cannot accept the Chinese Communist Party's address during Macau's handover' ... This sort of talk is in reality avoiding the essence of the whole issue," the commentary said.
On Monday, Lien said Taiwan was not a colony, like Macau and Hong Kong had been, and that the "one country, two systems" formula used for their return to Chinese sovereignty would not work.
"Some people in Taiwan believe that the help of foreign powers and the deployment of TMD can delay the process, and even embark on the road to independence," the Wen Wei Po commentary said. "This is unrealistic and dangerous thinking. There is only one way out of this, which is to hold political talks with Beijing as soon as possible under the `one China' principle."
Macau reverted to Chinese rule on midnight on Sunday, ending 442 years of Portuguese colonial administration.
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