Taiwan softens referendum on China's missiles
By William Foreman and Joe McDonald
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's leader, pressured by the United States, yesterday significantly watered down the language of a March 20 referendum on how the island should deal with the threat of hundreds of Chinese missiles.
President Chen Shui-bian had pushed for a China-bashing vote that demanded the communist giant remove the missiles. Now he says the vote will focus on whether Taiwan should step up its anti-missile defenses if the threat continues.
China, meanwhile, fired a public relations blast at Taiwan yesterday, displaying before reporters in four cities a group of suspected spies, some of whom expressed dismay at having served the island government.
Taiwan dismissed the event as a ploy to influence the island's upcoming presidential election.
In an address on the referendum televised in prime time, Mr. Chen announced that voters would be asked to decide whether Taiwan should purchase more advanced anti-missile weapons if China doesn't stop pointing nearly 500 missiles at the island and renounce its threats to attack the island. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949.
Mr. Chen also said voters would decide whether the Taiwanese government should begin negotiating with China "to build consensus and for the welfare of the peoples on both sides."
The softer language and tone marked an apparent attempt by Mr. Chen to shed his recent image as an unpredictable, reckless leader looking to pick a fight with China. The conventional wisdom was that Mr. Chen thought standing up to China's bullying would help his re-election bid March 20 — the same day as the referendum.
But Mr. Chen couldn't afford to ruffle relations with America too much because valued moderate voters consider warm U.S. relations key to stability and economic prosperity on the island.
Mr. Chen's closest advisers told reporters a week ago they had to address U.S. worries the referendum might lead to even more provocative moves that could upset the delicate status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan has never dared hold an islandwide referendum. The longtime fear has been that such a vote would spark a war with China, which claims the island is a sacred piece of the motherland that must rejoin eventually.
The United States has insisted China refrain from using force to settle the Taiwan issue. But America has also warned Taiwan against unilateral moves toward a permanent split.
Last month, President Bush told Mr. Chen that the United States opposed unilateral moves to change the status quo. High-ranking U.S. officials also criticized the referendum as unnecessary and a new source of tension.
Yesterday, the White House welcomed the new, toned-down language.
"We certainly welcome any statements that confirm Taiwan's commitment to the status quo now and in the years ahead," Press Secretary Scott McClellan said.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said he was examining Mr. Chen's statements and could not say whether he was satisfied with them.
But he said: "I think President Chen has shown a little flexibility in the way those two questions have been worded."
All along, Mr. Chen has argued that the referendum wouldn't affect the status quo. He insisted China was the one trying to unilaterally change things by deploying missiles and threatening Taiwan.
He made that argument again yesterday, saying: "China's purpose is unquestionably obvious. They aim to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait through undemocratic, unpeaceful means."
China has not commented on the new ballot language.
However, the extraordinary exhibit of purported spies appeared to be aimed personally at Mr. Chen as he prepares for the referendum and re-election bid.
"Chen Shui-bian is really a bad guy," one detainee, Fu Hung-chang, told reporters at a detention center in Guangzhou, China's southern business capital near Hong Kong. "He used us and then abandoned us."
The suspects appeared before selected Taiwanese, Hong Kong, foreign and mainland Chinese journalists two days after Beijing announced the arrests of seven more suspected spies linked to Taiwan.
Footage of the suspects was splashed across Taiwanese television as some broke down in tears and apologized.
China and Taiwan have no official ties but are believed to spy on each other.
Taiwan's government has said the men were innocent.
"We have reason to believe this is one way the authorities in communist China are trying to influence our domestic affairs and meddle with Taiwan's election," Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.
China denied it was trying to sway public opinion.
"These activities today were arranged not for the government's benefit, but to meet the requests of Taiwanese and Hong Kong journalists," said a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing.
Three prisoners — all crewcut, middle-aged men dressed in blue sweat pants and slip-on athletic shoes — were ushered into a conference room one by one for a 20-minute appearance in Guangzhou before about 40 reporters.
Similar events were held in the provinces of Anhui in China's east and Fujian and Hainan in the south. All have large Taiwanese business communities.
The suspects appeared physically well but said little.
"I want the Taiwan authorities to take responsibility for me," said Tung Tai-ping, who described the Chinese government as "magnanimous." |
