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China warns Taiwan against seeking independence

BEIJING: Just months before Taiwan's presidential elections, Chinese President Jiang Zemin has warned the island not to seek independence.

"China will not sit idle and tolerate any act calculated to split China, pursue the so-called 'independence of Taiwan,' or harm the fundamental interests of the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits," Jiang said in a New Year speech.

Major newspapers splashed on their front page on Sunday the full text of Jiang's speech to a tea party of senior Communist Party officials in Beijing on Saturday.

An expert on Taiwan affairs said the speech was aimed at reining in the island ahead of presidential elections in March.

Jiang stopped short of threatening to invade if Taiwan declared independence to avoid upsetting voters, said the analyst who asked not to be identified.

China's envoy to Washington Li Zhaoxing has been quoted as saying Beijing could not accept a victory in the presidential election by Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which espouses independence from China.

Beijing has viewed Taiwan as a breakaway province since the Communists won a civil war in 1949 and drove the defeated Nationalists into exile. It has sought to push Taiwan into diplomatic isolation and repeatedly threatened to invade if the Nationalist-ruled island declared independence.

Jiang stepped up pressure for Taiwan to reunify with China after the return of Hong Kong in 1997 and Macau last month.

"We have reason to believe that the Taiwan issue can definitely be resolved," Jiang said.

"When the time is ripe, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should enter into dialogue under the principle of one China," he said. "Anything can be discussed."

"I have to emphatically point out that the 'one China' principle is the basis and premise of peaceful reunification."

Taiwan has rejected China's "one country, two systems" formula, which granted Hong Kong and Macau a large degree of autonomy, as a way of unifying Beijing and Taipei.

Jiang said China was fully aware of the differences between Taiwan and Hong Kong and Macau.

"We will take into consideration the different characteristics of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and Taiwan will be given plenty of flexibility to realise peaceful reunification of China under the 'one country' premise," Jiang said.

Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui reiterated a call in his New Year's message for the resumption of long-stalled talks with China. But he added that Taiwan would not give up efforts to expand its foreign relations and international status.

Lee enraged China with a private landmark visit to the United States in 1995 to try to break the island out of diplomatic isolation.

China conducted war games in waters near Taiwan in the run-up to Taiwan's first direct presidential elections in March 1996.

Lee irked China anew in July when he called for bilateral ties to be conducted on a "special state-to-state" basis.

Beijing saw Lee's declaration as a "dangerous" lurch towards independence.-Reuters