MAC urges Beijing to tone down aggressive rhetoric

The Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement that the Republic of China is a sovereign independent country with the governments on both sides of the Taiwan strait not subordinate to each other.

“The PRC authorities are once more avoiding facing this reality and unilaterally advocating the use of force on us.

“This is not advantageous to the cause of peace and stability in the Taiwan strait,” it said.

Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office yesterday gave a scathing first formal response to Chen’s inaugural speech, demanding he adhere to the “one China” principle and saying it would pay any price to rein him in on his road to statehood, according to wire reports.

Claiming Beijing was taking a stance based on “incorrect perceptions,” the council said Chen’s speech expressed a wish to improve relations with China peacefully and had won over the U.S. and other key countries.

“We hope the PRC authorities can carefully consider the content of his speech and give a positive response,” it said.

The council also called on China to take a flexible attitude and develop a broad-range of cross-strait links in the interests of the welfare of the people on either side of the Taiwan Strait.

Please see MAC on page

Government officials and independence activists yesterday slammed China’s response.

“That the Chinese authorities are once again using military force to threaten Taiwan ... is of no help in improving cross strait relations, peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and seriously harms the feeling of the Taiwan people,” said newly-appointed cabinet spokesman Chen Chi-mai, according to the semi-official Central News Agency.

Huang Chao-tang, chairman of the Taiwan Independence Alliance, said China had shown no gratitude towards Chen’s peace overtures.

“I believe the 23 million people of Taiwan will never accept China’s ‘one China’ principle,” he said, according to the same agency. “Taiwan must unite and see China for what it is clearly.”

But the opposition “pan-blue” alliance said China’s response was a sign Chen had failed to gain any credibility with China in his inaugural speech. KMT party whip Liao Feng-teh pointed to the “anti-China rhetoric” in Chen’s election campaign, which took a much tougher line with the military and economic superpower.

“The government has a confused cross-strait relations policy ... making people anxious and obstructing economic relations,” Liao said.

In his inaugural speech, President Chen said he wanted to promote trade and economic exchanges with the island’s rival on the mainland, but Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Zhang Mingqing yesterday was less-than-impressed, even hinting at economic sanctions for independence activists, warning that business executives making money in China and returning to Taiwan to support independence would not be welcome, according to local and mainland Chinese media reports.

China and Taiwan also accused each other yesterday of obstructing the opening of direct transport links, with Zhang saying it could only happen in the context of reunification and MAC chief secretary Jan Jyr-horng saying they could only be opened if the two sides talked about it.

Philip Yang, a professor of political science at National Taiwan University, said he thought China’s response yesterday was merely extension of the ideas expressed in a fiercely-worded statement released days before Chen’s inauguration and it had not come up with anything new.

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