The Chinese government Wednesday voiced its "firm opposition" to
separatist moves by Taiwan authorities by abusing the planned
"referendum" as an excuse.
Zhang Mingqing, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the
State Council, said the mainland respects the aspiration of the
compatriots in Taiwan to be masters of their own community, but
Taiwan authorities are deliberately using the "referendum" as a
cover-up to challenge the one-China principle in a bid to split the
motherland.
Taiwan authorities have announced plans to launch a referendum
during the "general election" scheduled for next year on
"parliamentary reform", Taiwan's bid to join the World Health
Organization (WHO), a nuclear plant and the constitution
amendment.
Speaking at a press conference, Zhang criticized Chen Shui-bian
and Annette Lu for preaching Taiwan independence.
On Oct. 25, the Democratic Progressive Party and some
organizations for "Taiwan independence" held a procession calling
for a new "constitution" through referendum, he said.
The spokesman said that "Chen Shui-bian is preaching separatism
and is trying to carry out separatist activities by taking
advantage of the referendum."
All these activities show that recent reiteration of the
promises by leaders of Taiwan authorities, including that Taiwan
will not hold a referendum on sovereignty issues, is double-talk,
noted the spokesman.
"Taiwan independence activities directly impair the fundamental
interests of Taiwan compatriots, it is a scourge for Taiwan," he
said. "Separatist activities in any form will not be tolerated by
all the Chinese people."
"Safeguarding China's sovereignty and territorial integrity has
a bearing on the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, and
we will never waver on this vital matter of principle," Zhang
said.
On Chen Shui-bian's planned stopover in the Untied States, the
spokesman said Chen is going in for separatist activities overseas
to infringe upon and undermine the overall relations between China
and the United States.
Commenting on Taiwan's revision?of its regulations on
cross-Straits exchanges, Zhang said the mainland supports things
that are favorable for the economic development in Taiwan and
cross-Straits relations.
Under the revised regulations, Taiwan relaxes some of its
restrictions on personnel exchange, trade and investment between
the mainland and Taiwan. "That is not sufficient," said the
spokesman.
The relaxation is far from what the Taiwan and mainland people
want, and Taiwan authorities are delaying direct shipping
indefinitely, he said.
Taiwan authorities should follow the development trend of
cross-Straits relations and the will of the people on both sides by
giving up the independence stance and the policies hindering the
development of cross-Straits relations, and by removing all those
unreasonable restrictions on the relations.
Taiwan should demonstrate its sincerity of promoting
cross-Straits relations, not posturing or talking up improving the
ties purely for political and other purposes.
Addressing the press conference, Zhao Linshu, a mainland
agricultural scientist, said experts from the Chinese mainland and
Taiwan will continue cooperation in space seed breeding by
conducting follow-up experiments on seeds carried into space aboard
the Shenzhou-5 manned spacecraft earlier this month.
She said 100 grams of crop seeds were aboard the spacecraft,
which circled Earth 14 times on a 21-hour mission on Oct. 15 and
16.
The seeds included 33 varieties, including flowers and
vegetables, said Zhao, an associate research fellow with the Space
Breeding Center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural
Sciences.
She said the project represented the first cooperation of
agricultural research institutions from both sides of the Taiwan
Straits in space breeding, and she hoped it would help both sides
of the Taiwan Straits expand their cooperation in agricultural
sciences.
(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2003)