Academics Slam Chen Shui-bian for Separatist Remarks

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Academics Slam Chen Shui-bian for Separatist Remarks

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Academics here said the latest separatist remarks of Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian were serious challenges to the One-China Principle that the mainland of China has stood by and is recognized by the international community.

They agreed that Chen's remarks had largely reduced maneuverability for handling cross-straits ties, damaged a trend toward better relations, and threatened peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

These academics and experts recently attended a symposium in Beijing on the impact of Chen's recent statement that "each side (of the Taiwan Straits) is a country".

Chen's remarks revealed the true face of advocates of an independent Taiwan, said Jiang Dianming, vice-chairman of the Taiwan Studies Society.

Over the past few days, Chen's remarks had prompted strong protests from the Chinese people on the mainland and Taiwan island as well as from overseas Chinese. Chen and the Taiwan authorities had tried but failed to cover this up.

Li Yihu, a professor at Beijing University, said that Taiwan's pro-independence activists always surfaced and made trouble whenever a positive trend occurred in the development of cross-straits relations. He cited Lee Teng-hui's "two-state statement" and Chen's latest remarks as examples.

Their separatist remarks were aimed at interrupting and sabotaging the increasingly warmer economic and trade ties and unofficial exchanges between the two sides of the straits, Li said.

Chen had done so to consolidate his links with pro-independence voters in Taiwan, stall progress in establishing links in trade, transport and mail services across the Taiwan Straits, and curb the improvement in Sino-U.S. relations, said Guo Pingtan, an executive board member of the Taiwan Studies Society.

Chen had misinterpreted the situation by making his "each side is a country" statement but he could never achieve his misguided goal, Guo noted.

What Chen had done was detrimental to Taiwan's economic development and if he kept to it, the 23 million people in Taiwan would suffer, said Wang Jianmin, an associate research fellow from the Taiwan Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The symposium participants concluded that there was no way out for "Taiwan independence" as the Chinese government and people would never allow Taiwan to separate from China.

And, Chen's remarks would not draw support from the people of Taiwan and the international community, they held.

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