A Chinese government spokesman Wednesday reiterated the
denunciation of the referendum to be called by the Taiwan
authorities on March 20, claiming that the separatism intention
could never be concealed.
Li Weiyi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office under the State
Council, said many residents of the island disapproved of the
referendum and the international community also questioned its
motives.
"The referendum is a plot to change the cross-Straits status quo
and to sabotage the peace and stability of the Taiwan Straits," Li
said.
He said the "one-China" principle, which maintains Taiwan as an
integral part of China, is the foundation of the stability and
development of cross-Straits relations.
However, Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian had never endorsed the
"92 consensus" reached by both sides in 1992 on a basis of
accepting the "one-China" principle during his four years in
office.
"On one hand, Chen is bent on pursuing a referendum that aims to
split Taiwan from China, under the camouflage of democracy. On the
other hand, he has professed to set up a so-called framework for
cross-Straits peace and stability, which sounds an obvious deceit
to island residents and the international community," Li said.
Meanwhile, the spokesman also expressed the mainland's wish to
establish a closer economic and trade relations across the Straits,
saying the mainland was willing to collect opinions from all
circles of the island for a closer cooperative mechanism.
Wang Huapeng, deputy director of the Taiwan affairs office under
the State Administration of Press and Publication, said the
copyright trade, publishing cooperation and publication trade
between the two sides had progressed rapidly in recent years.
The mainland imported 770 copyrights from Taiwan and exported
201 copyrights to the island in 1999. The figures rose to 968 and
459 respectively in 2000, and to 1,366 and 787 in 2001. The year
2002 saw a slight drop with imports down to 1,278 and exports to
755.
Since 2002, Taiwan publishers have invested in 42 publishing
projects on the mainland, involving US$214 million.
Wang said Taiwan publishers would receive official approval to
set up book wholesale enterprises or chain stores on the mainland
from Dec. 1.
Publishers on both sides had intensified exchanges in the
publication, editing, distribution, printing, management and
copyright trade since 1989.
In addition, Li Weiyi hoped Taiwan would lift the ban on
mainland tourists.
The Taiwan authorities recently issued a regulation stipulating
that only mainland residents living abroad could visit Taiwan on
holidays, which was unreasonable and caused concern of Taiwan's
tourism sector.
(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2004)