Posted on 02/07/2004 9:40:04 AM PST by tallhappy
BEIJING, Feb. 5 — China is putting pressure on the Bush administration to intervene more decisively to prevent Taiwan from holding a referendum on relations with the mainland, calling the planned vote a "dangerous provocation" that could lead to a confrontation.
Beijing sent a mission to Washington this week to urge the United States to take more concrete steps to rein in Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said. Mr. Chen has repeatedly played down statements from President Bush and the State Department expressing opposition to the referendum plan.
The Chinese effort reflects growing concern in Beijing that the Taiwan problem is becoming more acute, even though Mr. Chen recently softened the language of his proposed referendum and offered to resume talks with China if he wins re-election on March 20. Some officials and analysts are alarmed that Mr. Chen has pushed ahead with the plebiscite despite American opposition.
A Foreign Ministry official, who declined to be identified by name, said a request for more active intervention was conveyed to Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who visited Beijing late last week. The official said a further appeal to the United States to take firmer steps to derail the referendum was relayed by Chen Yunlin, the head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council, or cabinet, who met State Department officials in Washington this week.
Asking the United States to play an intermediary role with Taiwan breaks a longstanding taboo in Beijing, where officials have often criticized Washington for meddling in relations between China and Taiwan. As such, it shows how limited China's options are for dealing with the matter, which some analysts here fear could lead to a military clash if its is not resolved soon.
"The United States has taken the right attitude toward the problem and realizes the motives of Chen Shui-bian," said Xu Bodong, an influential expert on Taiwan affairs in Beijing. "But American opposition has not been very firm and I'm afraid that this is leading to a serious misunderstanding in Taiwan."
The request puts the Bush administration in an awkward position. When Mr. Bush expressed his concern about Mr. Chen's referendum plan in December, during a visit to Washington by the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, he was criticized by neoconservatives and some pro-Taiwan members of Congress who maintain that the United States should support Taiwan against mainland China.
But the administration is determined to prevent a flare-up over Taiwan at a time when it is focused on Iraq. The administration is also depending heavily on China to help resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis. Just this week, China announced that it had arranged a new round of multilateral talks involving North Korea to be held in Beijing beginning later this month.
It is unclear whether the Bush administration is willing to take tougher steps against Mr. Chen if he continues to pursue the referendum plan, as appears likely. The pro-Taiwan lobby in Washington firmly opposes Chinese calls to curtail arms sales to Taiwan and limit contacts between American and Taiwanese officials. Mr. Bush has greatly increased arms sales and allowed a broader range of official contacts.
At issue is Mr. Chen's plan to place questions on the March presidential ballot addressing Taiwan's ties with China. Under the current wording, voters would decide whether to increase military spending if China does not remove missiles aimed at Taiwan. A second question would ask whether voters favor opening negotiations with Beijing.
While the questions seem relatively innocuous, China has argued that Mr. Chen is trying to set a precedent of putting issues of sovereignty to a popular vote, potentially paving the way for a formal vote on Taiwanese independence. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has vowed to wage war to prevent independence.
The Bush administration, reiterating longstanding policy, says it opposes unilateral steps to disrupt the status quo, and has backed China's view that a referendum of the sort Mr. Chen has proposed would upset it.
Administration officials have stuck to that position despite repeated appeals from Taiwan, which has said that the referendum is not intended to alter the status quo. Mr. Armitage reiterated the administration's concerns during his visit to China last week, even after Mr. Chen revised the wording.
Chinese military officials this week described the revised referendum as a major challenge to Chinese sovereignty, signaling that the Beijing leadership could respond harshly if Taiwan refuses to back down.
A prominent article in this week's issue of Outlook, a weekly current affairs magazine, carried essays by two senior scholars with military rank, both of whom made clear that the military would treat Taiwan's insistence on holding the referendum as a step toward independence.
"Chen Shui-bian's persistence in pursuing this provocative referendum shows that he is absolutely dead set in going down the road of independence," Col. Luo Yuan of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences wrote. "He must not make a big miscalculation and mistake restraint for weakness."
Policy statements on sensitive topics like Taiwan cannot be published in major newspapers or magazines in China without high-level approval.
Yet Beijing is also eager to avoid steps that could end up strengthening Mr. Chen's bid for re-election and hurting his opponent, the Nationalist Party leader, Lien Chan. Mr. Lien says he favors improving relations with mainland China and has accused Mr. Chen of jeopardizing Taiwan's security by challenging Beijing to an unnecessary duel.
But, you do make those sort of comments.
I know what you mean.
Another way to put it is are they that bloodthristy and do they hate taiwan so much they'd do this.
There are no real practial implications of Taiwan being openly recognized. People in China certainly don't want to attack Taiwan.
I do think Zhang Wannian is laughable. He may want to attack Taiwan but more likley he is busy with his little empire of corruption and keeping the goods on his corrupt chicom comrades so they can mutually extort each other to stay in power.
But, the argument that China will attack makes it much more important for Taiwan to be independent than if they won't attack, so where are we then.
You are definitely at a major disadvantage having taken classes on this subject. It is amazing you have such a clear view on this topic given this background. How could you have come out of that milieu not being completely Foggy headed? Bottom line:
Deng died seven years ago. CCK 16 years ago. Taiwan has invested billions and created millions of jobs in China.
No attack. Attack means ChiComs lose and lose power. It would be the end of their rule and regime and they know it.
The "immortals" are all dead. No one else has the authority or power to start this sort of attack. There will be a bigger civil war in China if they begin such a war.
They hate Chen and Lee because they have a long term vision and are moving step by step to free themselves of this silly and stupid situation in a way that has to be recognized and accepted by the free world. This is they are desperately looking for Bush to help. They know they can only use the US to take Taiwan. Clinton helped them and now Bush is helping them even more when the time now is to move in the exact opposite manner which is what Bush had done for a time.
What I see about lampton and his ilk is they are uncreativer narrow minded not too breight folk are always one or two steps behind.
And they caused the problem in the first place and have no idea how to end it and simply seek to always prolong it as they know nothing better.
Taiwan is planning to achieve or make clear their full sovereignty and independence before the 2008 Olympics. We can either help them or help the ChiComs. Those are the choices.
We can wait wait wait until then maybe China will have weapons from Europse to use (heck, by then maybe we'll be selling them weapons).
Or do it now in the next few years to deal with it and make it right.
Or say outright we want the PRC to take over Taiwan.
No more nonsense and stupid games. China is now essentially a colony of the US, Japan and Taiwan and others and we used their cheap labor force to manufacture all our goods.
The ChiCom regime is not needed in any way.
Anyhow, great to see you are being deprogrammed from your unfportunate indoctrination in to the foggy foggy world of foreign policy experts.
Once again your argument is that Chinese people are bloodthirsty psychopaths.
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