The Chinese government Wednesday voiced its "firm opposition" to separatist moves by Taiwan authorities by abusing the planned "referendum" as an excuse.

Zhang Mingqing, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said the mainland respects the aspiration of the compatriots in Taiwan to be masters of their own community, but Taiwan authorities are deliberately using the "referendum" as a cover-up to challenge the one-China principle in a bid to split the motherland.

Taiwan authorities have announced plans to launch a referendum during the "general election" scheduled for next year on "parliamentary reform", Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Organization (WHO), a nuclear plant and the constitution amendment.

Speaking at a press conference, Zhang criticized Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu for preaching Taiwan independence.

On Oct. 25, the Democratic Progressive Party and some organizations for "Taiwan independence" held a procession calling for a new "constitution" through referendum, he said.

The spokesman said that "Chen Shui-bian is preaching separatism and is trying to carry out separatist activities by taking advantage of the referendum."

All these activities show that recent reiteration of the promises by leaders of Taiwan authorities, including that Taiwan will not hold a referendum on sovereignty issues, is double-talk, noted the spokesman.

"Taiwan independence activities directly impair the fundamental interests of Taiwan compatriots, it is a scourge for Taiwan," he said. "Separatist activities in any form will not be tolerated by all the Chinese people."

"Safeguarding China's sovereignty and territorial integrity has a bearing on the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, and we will never waver on this vital matter of principle," Zhang said.

On Chen Shui-bian's planned stopover in the Untied States, the spokesman said Chen is going in for separatist activities overseas to infringe upon and undermine the overall relations between China and the United States.

Commenting on Taiwan's revision?of its regulations on cross-Straits exchanges, Zhang said the mainland supports things that are favorable for the economic development in Taiwan and cross-Straits relations.

Under the revised regulations, Taiwan relaxes some of its restrictions on personnel exchange, trade and investment between the mainland and Taiwan. "That is not sufficient," said the spokesman.

The relaxation is far from what the Taiwan and mainland people want, and Taiwan authorities are delaying direct shipping indefinitely, he said.

Taiwan authorities should follow the development trend of cross-Straits relations and the will of the people on both sides by giving up the independence stance and the policies hindering the development of cross-Straits relations, and by removing all those unreasonable restrictions on the relations.

Taiwan should demonstrate its sincerity of promoting cross-Straits relations, not posturing or talking up improving the ties purely for political and other purposes.

Addressing the press conference, Zhao Linshu, a mainland agricultural scientist, said experts from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan will continue cooperation in space seed breeding by conducting follow-up experiments on seeds carried into space aboard the Shenzhou-5 manned spacecraft earlier this month.

She said 100 grams of crop seeds were aboard the spacecraft, which circled Earth 14 times on a 21-hour mission on Oct. 15 and 16.

The seeds included 33 varieties, including flowers and vegetables, said Zhao, an associate research fellow with the Space Breeding Center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

She said the project represented the first cooperation of agricultural research institutions from both sides of the Taiwan Straits in space breeding, and she hoped it would help both sides of the Taiwan Straits expand their cooperation in agricultural sciences.

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2003)