Taiwan rebuffs China warning; says Taiwanese should decide their own
future
03.05.2006, 04:29 AM
TAIPEI (AFX) - Taiwanese authorities rebuffed Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao's warning against the island's independence movement saying
Taiwan's future should be decided by the people here rather than
Beijing.
'It was nothing new at all. We are not surprised,' Huang Wei-feng,
deputy chief of Taiwan's China policy decision-making body Mainland
Affairs Council, told reporters when asked to comment on Wen's remarks.
'They have been doing this all the way. Didn't they say they have
hinged their hope on Taiwan people? But as a matter of fact, they have
no idea what Taiwan people are thinking and what they want,' Huang
said.
Wen issued the warning while addressing the opening of the National
People's Congress annual session at Beijing, pledging that 'we will
uncompromisingly oppose secessionist activities aimed at Taiwan
independence.'
Tensions spiked last week after Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian,
defying pressure from Washington and Beijing, formally scrapped an
advisory council and guidelines set up to look at eventual
reunification with the mainland.
The Taiwanese government has defended the scrapping of the advisory
council and guidelines insisting that they were not decided by the
people but by the former Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalist) government in
1990.
'Taiwan is already a democratic society. It's natural in such society
to have various opinions on the issues,' Huang said.
Against the backdrop, 'Taiwan's future should be decided by the 23
million Taiwan people,' he said.
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