Published by World Tibet Network News - Tuesday, March 25, 1997

TAIPEI, March 25 (AFP) - President Lee Teng-hui Tuesday reiterated Taiwan's sovereignty but refuted charges he was promoting independence for the nationalist island.

"We must insist on the sovereignty of the Republic of China (Taiwan's official name) as an independent nation ... given the fact that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are separately governed," Lee said.

Lee made the remarks to national assembly deputies from the rightwing New Party who visited him at the presidential office.

But he defended his pragmatic foreign policies from accusations by the pro-reunification New Party that they were jeopardizing cross-strait relations.

"Our course we are seeking national reunification, but we cannot acknowledge that we are a province of communist China and we insist there is only China, which is the Republic of China," he added.

Beijing and those people who had charged him of advocating independence were purposely "smearing" his name, Lee said.

China has considered the island a renegade province since it drove nationalist forces here in 1949 after a civil war.

It has attacked Lee for trying to split Chinese national territory by boosting Taiwan's international profile through overseas trips and acts like meeting exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.

Lee has said Taiwan must break its diplomatic isolation imposed by China by sending its top leaders abroad in order to survive in world community.