The New York Times

Wednesday, February 23, 2000

Taiwan, Brushing Off Threats, Tells Chinese to Be Practical

By ERIK ECKHOLM

TAIPEI, Feb. 22 -- Unbowed by China's latest threat of force, Taiwan called on the mainland today to set aside fruitless debates over sovereignty and resume talks over economic ties and other practical matters to improve relations. "We call ourselves a sovereign country and if they don't like it, they'll have to live with it," said Su Chi, chairman of the cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council, in an interview. "They call us a province and we don't like it, but we live with it."

"The Taiwan problem is not solvable by force or the threat of force," he said.

Mr. Su spoke in response to a policy paper issued by China on Monday that repeated longstanding warnings of military action should Taiwan formally declare independence but added for the first time that Beijing might resort to force if the island endlessly puts off talks on political unification. Beijing has considered Taiwan a breakaway province since Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces, defeated by Mao Zedong's Communists, fled to the island in 1949.

China's stern report came less than one month before Taiwan's presidential elections and appears intended to impress on the candidates and voters that China's patience is running thin. It did not set down a timetable or ultimatum, but railed against what it termed the separatist scheming of Taiwan's president, Lee Teng-hui, who is not running for re-election, and condemned American arms sales to the island.

Among the public here, reactions to China's latest warning ranged from anger to indifference. But the prospect of new tensions caused the Taiwan stock market to slump, dipping more than 4 percent at one point before intervention by a special stabilizing fund held the day's loss to 1.8 percent.

China's report, and Taiwan's ripostes today, repeated familiar arguments in which seemingly minor rhetorical differences reflect crucial divisions over basic principles.

For the Taiwanese, who are proud of their advanced economy and democracy, embedded in China's offer of "one country, two systems" is an utterly unacceptable assumption: that Beijing heads the true national government and that Taiwan -- even if granted remarkable autonomy -- is merely one of its provinces.

"We cannot negotiate on the basis that theirs is a sovereign country while ours is a province," Mr. Su said. "We're not electing a governor here," he said, referring to the March 18 elections.

"We're electing a president, and they have to face it."

He repeated previous invitations to resume talks on trade and communications links, on a treaty to prevent use of force and on other practical issues, noting that a large majority in Taiwan is not ready to take the political leap that China demands.

"If the People's Republic of China thinks the time is right to reunify China, to bring Taiwan into its fold, they are miscalculating," he said. "The Taiwanese people don't want to declare independence, but they don't want unification now either."

Mindful of China's threats of war, all three leading candidates in the presidential election here have already declared their desire to resume talks with the mainland and foster closer economic ties. China angrily halted a tentative dialogue last summer after President Lee said Taiwan would meet only on a "state to state" basis -- a formulation that China considers tantamount to declaring independence.