China warns outsiders not to back Taiwan

By Oei Eng Goan and Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

SINGAPORE (JP): China warned the international community on Monday not to support Taiwan's move toward independence, saying that such actions could disrupt peace and stability in the region.

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan reiterated that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory based on historical fact and international recognition, and said it would not hesitate to use force to defend its sovereignty.

"If there occurs any action for Taiwan independence and any attempt by foreign forces to separate Taiwan from the motherland, the Chinese government and people will not sit back and do nothing," Tang told participants at the one-day sixth ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) here.

He said that sticking to the "One China" principle was the basis for stabilizing and developing cross-straits relations to help maintain the tranquility of the Asia-Pacific region.

China considers Taiwan -- which has accommodated the Kuomintang (Nationalist) government following its defeat by Mao Zedong's communist troops in a civil war in 1949 -- a breakaway province.

"To act against this principle and against the historical trend will not enjoy popular support and is doomed to failure," he said, stressing China's wish for a peaceful unification, as it did with Hong Kong in 1997 and will do with Macau in December.

Beijing was enraged when Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui said that talks regarding China-Taiwan relations should be on a state- to-state basis, obviously referring to Taiwan as an independent state.

On Sunday, after closed-door talks with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Tang said that Lee's statement referring to China and Taiwan as two separate nations "is a dangerous theory which publicly denies the 'One China' principle".

Albright, in a news conference held following her meeting with Tang, reiterated Washington's adherence to its "One China" policy, recognizing the Beijing government as the sole representative of the Chinese people, and that Taiwan is an integral part of China.

"America's relationship with China is also a key to the Asia Pacific's future. My government is strongly committed to its policy of purposeful and principle engagement with China," she said at the ARF meeting on Monday.

"This approach serves the interests of both our countries and of the region as a whole," Albright explained, adding that in recent years Sino-U.S. ties had yielded important results in controlling the spread of weapons of mass destruction and promoting stability on the Korean Peninsula.

In a bid to ease the cross-straits tension, Washington had dispatched Richard Bush, a state department expert in Taiwan affairs, to Taipei to remind Lee of the U.S. "One China" policy.

As all the countries participating in the ARF recognize and have diplomatic ties with the Beijing government, none of them raised the China-Taiwan tension, reflecting their views that it is China's own internal problem.

Tang said that while China supported the ARF's three-stage development plan, it nevertheless favored continued confidence- building measures among ARF members rather than moving into preventive diplomacy.