China's criticisms of Taiwan seen as enduring thorn
By James Kynge
TAIPEI (Reuter): Mao Zedong was once so angry with Nikita Khrushchev that China criticized the Soviet Union nine times. Last week Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui caught China's wrath in a verbal barrage that lasted four days.
Mao's criticisms were a low-point in a Sino-Soviet split which lasted for 30 years until 1989. China's lambasting of Lee represented the lowest point in Taiwan's rivalry with China since a gradual thaw began in the early 1980's.
Analysts in Taipei said the censure was so severe it will be difficult to expunge and may prove an enduring thorn as relations enter a crucial phase ahead of key elections in Taiwan.
"It is clear that they wanted to isolate Lee Teng-hui and criticize him personally," said Antonio Chiang, publisher of one of Taiwan's most influential magazines, The Journalist.
"It was a bit like criticisms of (Hong Kong Governor Chris) Patten," whom China has blasted for trying to expand democracy in the British colony, added Chiang.
But whereas Patten is a transitional figure who is due to vacate Hong Kong when it reverts to Chinese rule in 1997, President Lee enjoys huge popularity as this island prepares to hold its first presidential elections in March 1996.
Lee, although he has not yet announced his candidacy, is widely expected to run in the elections, which will choose a leader for the next six years.
Beijing accused Lee of paying only lip-service to an ideal of reunifying with China, while plotting to bring about independence for Taiwan.
Both Taiwan and China, rivals since their governments ended a civil war in 1949, espouse a goal to reunify, albeit on different terms. But China said last week that discussing reunification with Lee was like "climbing a tree to catch fish".
The fact that China backed its verbal barrage by test-firing missiles 140 km (85 miles) into the sea north of this island, reminded people that Beijing maintains a threat to attack Taiwan if it declares independence.
"It obviously wants people to ponder the military implications of voting for independence in the elections," said a member of a foreign nation's representative office in Taipei.
Parliamentary elections on Dec. 2 are expected to be a close- run contest between the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which favors independence, and the ruling Nationalists which gained just 53 percent of the vote in the last poll.
It remains to be seen whether Beijing's tactics will prove effective in keeping the DPP out of power, but early signs show that its onslaught on Lee may have backfired.
A poll by the major China Times newspaper showed Lee's popular support rose to 80 percent, up from 79 percent shortly before he made a triumphal visit to the United States in June. The visit enraged Beijing.
"There is a sense of unity and solidarity. A feeling of common destiny for the people on Taiwan has emerged," said Chiang.
Analysts here added that Beijing's aggressive actions are unlikely to help ease tensions between the United States and China ahead of a meeting between Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Chinese foreign minister Qian Qichen.
Christopher and Qian are due to talk today at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Brunei.