The Chinese government said yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (
An unnamed spokesman from Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office also reiterated that China would never allow Taiwan to formally break away, the People's Daily reported.
"Chen intends to unreasonably restrict cross-strait exchanges and cooperation, worsen the atmosphere of cross-strait relations, and ruin the peaceful and stable development of cross-strait ties," the spokesman was quoted as saying.
"We will be highly vigilant to any secessionist moves and never allow secessionists to separate Taiwan from the motherland in any name or by any way," he said.
Chen said on Monday in a New Year's message that the nation's sovereignty lay in its own hands.
"Hereby we must stress that Taiwan is our country. Taiwan's sovereignty belongs to 23 million people. It definitely does not belong to the People's Republic of China," Chen said after a national flag-hoisting ceremony.
"Only the 23 million have the right to decide on the future of Taiwan. Taiwan is part of the world but not part of China," he said.
His remarks came after China issued a key defense paper arguing it needs a strong and credible military and citing security challenges it said it cannot ignore, such as Taiwan's independence drive.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
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Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
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