|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback | |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|  |
 Overview | Analysis | Election Guide | Taiwan Guide | Video Archive | Recent News Taiwan's new president takes office; seeks to calm ChinaMay 21, 2000Web posted at: 11:58 p.m. EDT (0358 GMT)
TAIPEI, Taiwan (CNN) -- Chen Shui-bian took the oath of office as Taiwan's new president Saturday -- and refused to bend to Beijing's claim that the island is an inseparable part of China. But he offered an olive branch aimed at calming the mounting crisis in relations between Taiwan and its giant communist neighbor.
Chen said during his inaugural speech that as long as China refrained from using military means to take control of Taiwan, he would not push for independence from Beijing. "As long as communist China has no intention to use force, I assure within my term of office I will not declare independence," he said. But Chen refused to accept Beijing's so-called "one China principle." Such agreement would mean recognizing that the communist government is the ruler of that one China. China accused Chen of insincerityIn a statement carried by China's official Xinhua News Agency, Beijing accused Chen of insincerity and expressed disappointment that he did not explicitly say that Taiwan is part of "one China." Becoming part of an impoverished China ruled by an authoritarian regime has never appealed to the Taiwanese, who have built a democracy with a thriving economy on an island about the size of the Netherlands. But several times during his speech, Chen referred to the shared ancestry of Taiwanese and Chinese.
"The people across the Taiwan Strait share the same ancestral, cultural and historical background," said Chen, whose ancestors came from China. Chen's inauguration ended more than 50 years of Nationalist Party rule on Taiwan and marks the first time an opposition leader has taken power democratically in a Chinese state. His inaugural address will be scrutinized around the region and in communist-ruled China, which still considers Taiwan a renegade province. Chen already had indicated he doesn't intend to provoke Beijing, but Taiwan's military was on heightened alert for the inauguration.
Beijing threatened Taiwan with warChina has threatened war if Taipei moves toward declaring itself an independent state. For Chen, the challenge is to balance domestic pressures -- and his own long-standing support for an independent Taiwan -- with China's demands. The 49-year-old Chen was a popular opposition leader during the years when the Nationalists ruled by decree. He served as a defense lawyer for political dissidents and spent time in prison himself during the period of martial law. He was elected in March, ending a 50-year grip on power by Lee Teng-hui's ruling Nationalist Party -- the remnants of China's pre-communist government, which fled to Taiwan after its 1949 defeat in China's civil war. As a once-outspoken advocate of Taiwan's independence, his comments will be watched closely by officials in Beijing. He has so far refused to accept Beijing's demand that he embrace the "One-China principle," which would mean he saw Taiwan as an inseparable part of China. "The way he will balance these pressures is making things very ambiguous," said Tim Ting, a pollster for Gallup Taiwan. "He will refer to Taiwan, the Republic of China, one China as an issue to discuss. He will be jumping around." No sudden moves expected from BeijingIt's far from clear whether anything he said will blunt Beijing's determination to resolve Taiwan question on its own terms. State-controlled Chinese media is warning Taiwan's new leader not to stray far from their wishes in his inaugural address. But few expect China to turn its threats into action just yet. Chinese policy-makers privately admit that unless they want a costly war, they have no other option than to give Chen more time to adopt a definition of Taiwan's status that Beijing finds acceptable. And while there is talk of a deadline among the leadership in Beijing, the talk is not of months, but years. "Most Chinese leaders are not naive. Their hopes for his speech aren't too high," said Chu Shulong, of the China Institute for Contemporary International Relations. "But the mainstream government attitude is that Chen's position has been quite moderate both during and after his election. Hong Kong Bureau Chief Mike Chinoy, Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
RELATED STORIES: Taiwan's new president takes office under Beijing's scrutiny RELATED SITES: Chen Shui-bian's campaign homepage (in Chinese) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to the top |
© 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. |
![[CNN Money]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/main/fn.logo.newsnet.gif){kind=logo}
![[SI.com]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/main/si.logo.gif){kind=logo}
(
Hong Kong Bureau Chief Mike Chinoy examines the Taiwanese feeling of independence from China as a new president is inaugurated.
