Chen's plan endangers cross-Straits ties By Xing Zhigang (China Daily) Updated: 2006-02-25 07:23
Cross-Straits relations could plunge into crisis if Taiwan leader Chen
Shui-bian abolishes the island's council and guidelines on unification with the
mainland, researchers warn.
Professor Li Yihu of Peking University said Chen's plan to dissolve the
council and the guidelines has exposed his intensified secessionist push before
his final term ends in 2008.
The ongoing scheme is only an initial step towards Chen's goal to legitimize
Taiwan "independence," he added.
"If Chen really dismantles the council and the guidelines, cross-Straits
tension will be fuelled," Li said on Friday. "It will bring the Taiwan Straits
into a crisis status."
Taiwanese media are speculating that Chen could announce the scrapping of the
council and the guidelines as early as Tuesday or possibly mid-March.
Chen's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party voted on Thursday to
endorse abolishing the guidelines.
Li Weiyi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council,
reiterated on Friday that the mainland is following the developments closely.
"We firmly oppose any pro-independence activities in any form," he told a
regular news conference. "We will see what his next step and his intention are."
The spokesman denied that Taipei has sent a secret envoy to the mainland on
the issue, saying he has no information about such a trip.
Li said he expected Chen to forge ahead with his "constitutional
re-engineering" project aimed at "de jure independence" for Taiwan after
abolishing the council and guidelines.
Since 2004, Chen has unveiled a timetable to write a new "constitution" for
the island in 2006 and enact the document in 2008.
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