Chen speech not enough for China
Beijing calls Taiwan leader 'biggest threat'
 |  Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian delivers his inauguration speech. |
|  VIDEO |
 Taiwan's leader finds himself at odds with Beijing. CNN's Mike Chinoy explains
 Beijing vows to quash any future move for independence. CNN's Jaime Florcruz reports
 Taiwan election a headache for China
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(CNN) -- Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian remains the "biggest threat" to regional peace and stability in the eyes of China, despite his placatory inauguration speech in Taipei Thursday.
China's state-run Xinhua news agency Friday quoted mainland scholars as saying Chen remained obstinately on the path to separatism.
Behind Chen's "soft words" was a pro-independence agenda, Professor Fan Xizhou of Xiamen University's Taiwan Research Institute said.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunified with the mainland -- if necessary, by force.
Chen first led Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party to power in 2000, ousting the Nationalist Party, which ruled the island for five decades and opposes Taiwan independence.
Chen, who won a second term as president in a narrow and now hotly disputed election result in March, stepped back from confronting China in his remarks Thursday.
He said he hoped to have a new consitution ready by the end of his term in 2008, but specifically ruled out any constitutional reform measures touching on national sovereignty, territory, independence and unification, saying there was no consensus yet on these issues.
But a Chinese foreign ministry statement after Chen's speech attacked what it called his "provocative pro-independence activities" and called them "the biggest current threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits".
The United States, which is committed to supplying Taiwan with defensive weapons under the Taiwan Relations Act, described Chen's speech as "constructive".
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the U.S. policy was unchanged.
"We do not support Taiwan independence, and we oppose attempts by either side to unilaterally alter the status quo," he said during a daily press briefing in Washington.
He said the U.S. was "firmly committed" to the one China policy and to its responsibility under the Taiwan Relations Act.
China warned earlier this week that any "dangerous lurch towards independence" by Taiwan would be crushed "at any cost".
That brought a rebuke from the United States, which said Beijing's language had no place in "international civilized discourse".
While Chen's speech was designed to mollify Beijing, China analyst Willy Lam noted there was no mention in it of the "one China" principle, something Beijing insists Taiwan acknowledge.
CNN Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz said Chen's remarks were placatory in tone, but would be seen in Beijing as only of "small consolation".
Chen said the situation in the Taiwan Strait remained a focus of international attention, and it was imperative for Taiwan to strengthen its defenses.
But he also called for a fresh approach on cross-Strait issues, saying the two sides shared a cultural heritage and he wanted to stabilize relations with China.
Chen noted that while Taiwan was the world's 15th largest trading nation, it had taken 12 years for it to become the 144th member of the World Trade Organization, and it was still excluded from membership of the World Health Organization.
Chen said he wanted to unify the people of Taiwan and his narrow victory in the March presidential election should not become a wedge. He said a pre-eminent mission was to rebuild the bridge of trust between the government and opposition parties.
Rain-lashed ceremony
|  Soldiers in Taiwan shown practising for the inauguration cermony. |
Chen, who was shot and wounded during campaigning for the presidential election he won narrowly in March, was formally sworn in at 9 a.m. Thursday local time (1 a.m. GMT) in a rain-lashed ceremony in the capital, Taipei.
His Vice-President, Annette Lu, was also sworn in by Grand Justice Wong Yueh-sheng.
The March election result, which Chen won by a margin of just 30,000 votes, from 13 million cast, remains in dispute.
A recount sought by Chen's opponent Lien Chan has been completed, but the High Court is not expected to release results for some weeks. About 40,000 votes are thought to be in dispute.
CNN's Senior Asia Correspondent Mike Chinoy, reporting from Taipei, said Chen was taking office in a "poisonous political atmosphere" because of the election dispute.
He said the electorate remained "deeply divided" over Chen's mandate.
Taiwan took a separate course after the 1949 civil war that brought the Communist Party to power in China, becoming a refuge for the fleeing Nationalist troops and their families.
Despite growing commercial ties across the Taiwan Strait -- more than 1 million people from Taiwan now live and work on the mainland and Taiwanese investment runs into billions of dollars -- China's leadership has vowed to make whatever sacrifice is necessary in pursuing reunification.
Chen has showed no signs of being willing to accept unification with China.
Most polls say the majority of Taiwanese favor avoiding immediate unification while holding off on drastic moves toward a permanent split that might provoke China.
But Beijing suspects Chen might use a new constitution to enshrine claims that Taiwan has become an independent nation. (China may mandate unity)
Many China watchers disagree about whether China would act on long-standing threats to attack Taiwan, the Associated Press reports.
But most agree that if that happened, the United States would likely get dragged in. (Full story)
