Wed, Aug 07, 2002 page3

• Chen's tough stance was planned

  CONSENSUS Government officials had agreed on the president's new course of action against China even before his Africa visit, but some say he wasn't supposed to go so far

  • By Lin Chieh-yu / STAFF REPORTER
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  After criticizing President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) remarks that insinuated Taiwan and China are two separate countries and that he would push for the passing of a referendum law, political analysts said that local politicians and the international community are waiting to see whether he has a "thought-out" strategy to follow his remarks -- or whether he would just withdraw from his tough attitude.

  Ku Chung?hwa (顧忠華), president of the Taipei Society, said that President Chen's remarks about "one country on either side of the Taiwan Strait" can be viewed as the first move to stir a hornet's nest, both at home and abroad. It shows that Chen has taken a hard line toward China.

  "Even though this administration wasted no time in `interpreting' and `modifying' Chen's comment, what really concerns Taiwan's people and the international community is whether Chen's talk was just a tactical move for his re-election campaign or whether it was a well-deliberated strategy that will serve to thaw the stalemate that has long existed across the Strait," Ku said.

  Chen reiterated in a video telecast to the annual meeting of the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations in Tokyo last Saturday that Taiwan must go its "own way" -- a road of democracy, human rights and freedom -- and called on the public "to consider the importance and urgency of passing a referendum law."

  The president also deviated from his original speech script by saying that "Taiwan and China are `one country on either side of the Strait,' and this must be very clear."

  The president's comment was soon interpreted as implying that he wants to push for a referendum on whether Taiwan should declare independence.

  But the president's aides explained on Sunday that the president was just stating the "political reality" and that a plebiscite will not be conducted arbitrarily.

  Various officials stressed that Taiwan has time and again extended olive branches to China in the hope of thawing relations across the Strait, but it turned out that Taiwan was only losing all its bargaining chips, with businessmen and politicians toadying to Beijing and pressuring the government to make concessions to China.

  They said that this does not help preserve Taiwan's autonomy, but would just leave its allies worried. In particular, the review from the US defense department clearly pointed out that China has been strengthening its military power and has no intention of solving the Taiwan question through peaceful means.

  "So our government must spell out Taiwan's position to Beijing and Washington," one aide said.

  The aide emphasized that many people might attribute the president's tough stance against China to Nauru's switch of diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China on the day that Chen took over the DPP's chairmanship. But he said the president had, at the end of June and prior to his tour to Africa, exchanged views with national-security officials and former president Lee and had decided then to adopt a "hard line" strategy -- both toward the opposition parties at home and toward the Beijing regime -- during his remaining tenure.

  After the president returned from his visit to African allies on July 10, he told a number of senior party leaders about the policy change and gave instructions for the party to raise public understanding of the content and spirit of the DPP's 1999 resolution on Taiwan's future (台灣前途決議文).

  "Our efforts to facilitate the other side seems neither to have helped reconciliation between the ruling DPP and the opposition alliance, nor to break through the deadlock between the two sides of the Strait," said a DPP heavyweight.

  "The president can't waste his time any more waiting for them to change," the aide said, "and Taiwanese can't just watch the opportunity drift away and see themselves become bargaining chips in the hands of these unpredictable enemies."

  A senior advisor of the National Security Council (NSC) revealed that efforts to tighten the government's China policy is part of a plan that had been discussed by top officials of the govern-ment.

  The advisor says it has also been agreed that the president will adopt a tougher attitude against Beijing. However, he admitted that "one country on either side" was not the statement that officials thought the president would use.

  "The influence of those words is obviously too intense and the government and the whole national-security system need to re-evaluate the possible side-effects," the official said.

  Another heavyweight of the NSC expressed his concerns that the internal political development of China remains ambiguous. "And whether Jiang Zemin (江澤民) will hand over his power requires further observation. It does not do Taiwan any good to make waves in the cross-strait situation right now," he said.

  "The president may perhaps be trying to break the impasse," he said, "but an even more important priority is to ask `what is the goal of opening up the impasse?'"
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