Taiwan Scraps War Games to Defuse China Tension
>>But China's military and state-run official media appeared to be unimpressed with Chen's back-peddling, renewing threats to invade the island.
Beijing's China Daily quoted an unidentified senior military officer as saying Chen might risk attack if he pressed ahead with a vote on independence.<<
August 07, 2002 06:34 AM ET
By Alice Hung and John Ruwitch
TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Taiwan scrapped planned war games on Wednesday as part of efforts to defuse tensions with China, but Beijing told President Chen Shui-bian he may risk attack if he presses ahead with a referendum on independence.
Taiwan's military announced it was canceling anti-submarine drills off eastern Taiwan set for August 15 to "avoid speculation and misunderstanding" after Chen enraged Beijing by backing a referendum on formal independence for the island.
"The situation in the Taiwan Strait is tense. We canceled the exercises to avoid misunderstanding," a Defense Ministry spokesman said. He declined to give further details.
Taipei's mass-circulation China Times said in a front-page report on Wednesday that Chen had ordered the ministry to cancel the drills to "express goodwill to the other side."
Beijing considers Taiwan a rebel province and has threatened to attack if the democratic island of 23 million people declares independence or drags its feet on unification talks.
Chen said on Saturday that holding a referendum was a "basic human right" and that in reality there was "one country on each side" of the Taiwan Strait. This triggered an angry response from Beijing, which said he was leading the island to disaster.
However, on Tuesday -- after his comments roiled financial markets and public opinion polls showed his support falling to record lows -- Chen said his remarks were oversimplified.
He sought to soften his comments, saying "equal sovereignty" would be a more appropriate way to sum up his speech.
DAMAGE CONTROL
"Chen Shui-bian knows things have gotten out of control. China is enraged and the United States is shocked. He must do something to defuse the tension," said George Tsai, research fellow at the National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations.
But China's military and state-run official media appeared to be unimpressed with Chen's back-peddling, renewing threats to invade the island.
Beijing's China Daily quoted an unidentified senior military officer as saying Chen might risk attack if he pressed ahead with a vote on independence.
In the first comment by the People's Liberation Army on Chen's endorsement of a referendum, he said the Taiwan leader was undermining Beijing's commitment to peaceful reunification.
There was a growing possibility "that peace will have to be safeguarded and won through the use of force" if the island moved toward a referendum, he was quoted as saying.
The Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), Beijing's semi-official body for negotiating with Taipei, said Chen's back-pedaling amounted to "sophistry."
Chen's "one country on each side" formulation echoed former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui's call in 1999 to redefine bilateral ties as "special state-to-state" relations.
Relations between Taipei and the mainland nosedived after Lee's statement and Taiwan officials have scrambled to contain the latest fall-out.
Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's top policymaker on China, was added at the last minute to Premier Yu Shyi-kun's delegation, which stopped over in New York this week on a trip to Latin American, so she could reassure U.S. officials that President Chen's remarks did not signal a policy change.
Opinion polls have shown Chen's popularity slumping since his controversial remarks.
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