-Caveat Lector- http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/12/5/61600.shtml
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! China Calm Following Taiwan Election NewsMax.com Wires Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2001 BEIJING -- China responded to Taiwan's weekend election result with uncharacteristic calm Wednesday as a government spokesman said Beijing is confident that pro-independence forces on the island are still a minority. "I don't think independence forces are getting stronger," said spokesman Zhang Mingqing of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council at a press conference. Saturday's legislative election saw pro-independence parties wrest the majority away from the nationalist Kuomintang Party after more than 50 years of dominance. "Most Taiwan people want relations to be stable and developing and especially want warmer economic and trade relations," Zhang said. Beijing considers Taiwan a part of China and has threatened the use of force in the event of any move toward independence, but Zhang said his office doesn't consider the sweeping changes to be very significant for cross-straits relations. "The overall political situation has not changed after the election," Zhang said. Zhang also emphasized that Taiwan should recognize and not deviate from Beijing's cherished "one China policy," which states that there is only one China and that Taiwan is a part of it. Pointing to independent polls in Taiwan, Zhang said a majority of the Taiwanese people do not favor independence and that the new legislature should not attempt to sway public opinion away from this stance. The press conference, which was the first official reaction from the Chinese government since the election, steered away from the usual saber-rattling rhetoric of the past. Instead, Beijing allowed shared economic interests of the two sides to be the focus of an election result that was a surprise in the mainland where the status quo with its wartime rival, the KMT, has long been the framework for any dialogue. "After the two sides enter the WTO, we will still maintain our policy of encouraging Taiwan investment on the mainland and welcome more Taiwan compatriots to come and take up the first opportunities in the world's largest market," Zhang said. Both China and Taiwan were admitted to the World Trade Organization last month and are expected to ratify their accession in the coming months; a move both sides are hoping will help enliven their economies. Taiwan is currently experiencing its worst ever economic recession and has recently begun loosening curbs on investment ties with the mainland. Many had hoped that entry to the WTO could facilitate closer cooperation and the establishment of more direct links, but Zhang called these issues an internal matter. "Economic and trade problems between the two sides and the three links question are the internal affairs of a single country and do not need to be discussed within the framework of the WTO," he said. No single party took an overall majority in the poll but President Chen Shui-bian's Democratic Progressive Party became the largest party in Parliament, taking 87 of the 225 seats. Still 25 seats short of a majority, the DPP will have to compromise in a coalition government, and although the KMT lost its five decade-long grip on the legislative Yuan, opposition parties could still work together and dominate Parliament, continuing the policy deadlock seen since Chen was elected president last year. The KMT ended up with 68 seats in Parliament, a massive loss from their previous majority of 123 seats. The People's First Party, founded by former KMT heavyweight James Soong after he narrowly lost last year's presidential elections, got 46 seats, while the Taiwan Solidarity Union, backed by former President Lee Teng-hui, got 13. The New Party led by Lien Chan, another KMT splinter advocating unification with China, only won one seat and failed to garner the 5 percent of the vote needed to receive government funding. The new legislature will not be sworn in until February and most analysts believe a coalition of the pro-independence parties will be formed with the DPP, a move that could eventually spark new anger in Beijing if policy changes were to follow. Beijing is, for the moment, maintaining the party line on Taiwan, which could be a stalling tactic until the new legislature begins its work and the true results of the election are made clear. "We will pay a lot of attention to the direction of Taiwan's policies on the mainland in the wake of the election," Zhang said. 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