How Lee Teng-hui Fools Public Opinion

BEIJING, August 9 (Xinhua) -- A Xinhua commentary today exposed Lee Teng-hui's hypocrisy of his splittist remarks.

Recently, Lee again trotted out his "two states" remarks, wrapped up in the written speech of Koo Chen-fu and the written explanation of the "Mainland Affairs Council", the commentary said.

The Taiwan authorities had to publish the two documents one after another in an attempt to escape from embarrassment because Lee's "two states" remarks met with strong condemnation both on and outside the island. However, the common nature of the two documents is their falsity, the commentary said.

Lee said on July 9 that cross-straits relations should be defined as "state-to-state or at least special state-to-state relations". And this was echoed immediately by some Taiwanese officials, causing a temporary clamor in the island's press.

However, Lee replaced his "state-to-state" claim with the expression "special state-to-state" once he found that the situation was not in his favor, openly declaring that he had never made any "two states" remarks and that it was all cooked up by the media, the commentary said.

A Taiwan newspaper said that the "two states" statement has dragged Taiwan into a new, unstable and dangerous situation, and that Lee himself should take the responsibility for what he said.

The newspaper further commented that this was not the first time Lee had claimed that the media had misreported him.

The written speech of Koo Chen-fu, the written explanation of the "Mainland Affairs Council", and remarks made by some Taiwanese officials recently have repeatedly said that the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the Straits Exchanges Foundation (SEF) achieved a common understanding on the "one China" principle in 1992, the commentator said.

But Lee and some Taiwanese officials have distorted the principle. And what's more, relations within one China can never be interpreted as "state-to-state" or "two states", no matter how people try to explain it, the article said.

Lee and his followers tried to find excuses for their farce. They argued that President Jiang Zemin has said that the two sides of the Taiwan Straits could discuss anything and, of course, the " two states" statement could be discussed.

Jiang Zemin has said that the two sides can discuss any thing under the "one China" principle, and Lee purposefully dropped the prerequisite in a move to deny the "one China" principle, harm cross-straits relations, and split Taiwan from the motherland, the commentary said.

After Lee and his followers destroyed the "one China" principle, the base under which the two sides had contacts, communication and talks, they expressed time and again their welcome for ARATS chairman Wang Daohan to visit Taiwan. As is known to all, they were just playing a farce, the article said.

Lee once said that he would like to act like Moses in the Bible, leading the Israelites out of Egypt to establish a new country. And later he said in a book that China should be divided into seven parts.

Lee has been making splittist efforts, and simultaneously trying to fool the world public opinion into believing that he has been contributing to regional peace and stability, the commentary concluded, pointing out that Lee is actually part of the scum of the Chinese nation.