Taipei, Dec. 10 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian urged the world Wednesday not to accept mainland China's missile deployment against Taiwan as a matter of course.
The international community should also not regard Taiwan people's efforts to consolidate their democratic system and their concerns about mainland China's missile threat as a provocative action, Chen said.
Moreover, Chen went on, Taiwan's "preventive referendum" plan is part of the island's efforts to maintain its present status quo, pointing out that the plan has nothing to do with the "independence versus unification" debate and will not breach the "four noes plus one" pledge.
Chen made the remarks while meeting with U.S. Congressman Dan Burton (R-Ind.) at the Presidential Office.
Chen took advantage of his meeting with Burton to express his views on the Bush-Wen meeting.
First of all, Chen said that Taiwan is an independent country and that it is his duty and his mission as the nation's president to defend the nation's sovereignty, dignity and security. "In other words, we must protect Taiwan's present independent status quo. We cannot tolerate any change to this status quo. All of our efforts, including the preventive referendum plan, are aimed at avoiding war, freeing our people from fear, and maintaining the status quo," Chen said.
Stressing that his administration does not intend to change the status quo and will not tolerate any change to it, Chen said Taiwan wants a peaceful, stable status quo, rather than a status quo characterized by a military threat.
Secondly, Chen said, mainland China has consistently opposed Taiwan's democratic reform drive over the past decades. "In our democratic reform process, Beijing has never shown support and has instead explicitly opposed all of our moves, from the lifting of martial law, the removal of the ban on forming new political parties and the launching of new newspapers, to legislative reform and direct election of the president," Chen said.
Worse still, he went on, mainland China has tended to unilaterally perceive every one of Taiwan's democratic reform moves as an act of provocation and a step toward independence. "China itself can resist democracy and reform, but it is not entitled to oppose or distort Taiwan's democratic reform. Despite Beijing's opposition, the 23 million people of Taiwan have over the past decade insisted on moving down the road to democracy and on completing democratic reform," Chen said.
Thirdly, Chen said he hopes the international community can refrain from accepting China's military threat and missile deployment against Taiwan as a matter of course. "Nor should the world regard our people's determination and efforts to strengthen our young democracy and our concerns about the missile threat as acts of provocation. The definitions of democracy, peace, threat and provocation can by no means be determined by Beijing authorities or a few mainland Chinese leaders unilaterally, " Chen added.