China described President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday as "immoral" and warned Taiwanese voters not to be tempted by his pro-independence platform in the March 20 election.
"In seeking his personal re-election, Chen has put the tangible interests of the Taiwan people at stake," National People's Congress spokesman Jiang Enzhu (
"This is indeed very immoral," he said.
"We understand and respect the Taiwan compatriots' desire for developing democracy, but we firmly oppose Taiwan authorities' pursuit of Taiwan independence and any splittist activities under the cloak of democracy," Jiang said.
He said Chen had stirred up the "indignation and condemnation" of China's 1.3 billion people.
It is the latest salvo in the war of words being orchestrated by Beijing ahead of the elections.
At Wednesday's opening session of the China People's Political Consultative Conference, chairman Jia Qinglin (
"We must unswervingly uphold the one-China policy, resolutely oppose separatist activities of any sort that are designed to bring about Taiwan independence and never allow anybody to separate Taiwan from China by any means," Jia said.
But despite the obvious distaste of China's leaders for Chen, Beijing has so far appeared to approach the elections more calmly than earlier elections.
Ballistic missile tests and military exercises ahead of presidential elections in 1996 and 2000 worked to push voters away from Beijing's preferred candidate and resulted in Chen's 2000 election.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
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The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
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