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Thursday, March 3, 2005

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  But the proposed law has some in Taiwan speculating it might foster a political witch hunt against Taiwan supporters living in China. The island's leaders say the law would set a legal pretext for military action and warn it will only further alienate the Taiwanese public, already highly skeptical about Beijing's overtures.

"A dark cloud now overshadows the atmosphere of reconciliation," Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian said Tuesday in a videoconference with European lawmakers and academics.

Chinese leaders say it will merely give legal heft to their long-standing policy of offering Taiwan broad autonomy in return for peacefully unifying with the mainland, while retaining the option to use force if other means fail. China has claimed wealthy, democratic Taiwan as its own territory since the two sides split during a civil war in 1949.

"This is a law that ... firmly expresses the nation's determination to maintain national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Chen Yunlin, head of the government's Taiwan Affairs Office, wrote in the latest edition of the Communist Party magazine "Qiushi."

Comments from Chinese leaders suggest the law wouldn't set new conditions for using force against the island or deadlines for unification.

But since the law hasn't been made public, it isn't clear what the effects will be.

"Only the top people know," said Joseph Cheng, director of the Contemporary China Research Center at Hong Kong's City University.

Cheng said the law seemed intended at making clear to Taiwan and the United States what steps Beijing would find intolerable and what could spark an attack. China has in the past threatened to fight Taiwan if it declares outright independence, hosts foreign forces, or indefinitely delays unification talks.

U.S. officials have labeled the proposed law an unwelcome development that they fear could spoil hopes for a resumption of Taiwan-China talks, suspended by Beijing in 1999 in a squabble over the island's political status.

But the U.S. response has been low-key, probably because Washington needs Beijing's help with talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program and other sticky issues.

Washington doesn't challenge China's claim to the island but is bound by law to ensure Taipei has the military means to defend itself from attack.

Beijing took the unusual step of sending Chen, the head of the Taiwan Affairs Office, to Washington in January to discuss the proposed law with State Department officials. Details of those talks were not disclosed.

China says it had to draft the law after Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian proposed holding a referendum on a new constitution, replacing one adopted in 1947 that Beijing views as an important symbolic link between the two sides since it predates their split.

Like many on the island of 23 million, Chen refuses to view Taiwan and China as a single nation. Beijing views his proposal for a referendum as dangerously close to an outright vote on independence.

The law comes amid growing business and personal ties between the sides but also continued worries over the potential for conflict: Washington fears the European Union's plan to end a 15-year-old ban on arms sales to China may endanger Taiwan's security.

Despite a Chinese military buildup focused largely toward Taiwan, last year Taiwanese made more than 10 million trips to the mainland. Taiwan businesses have invested more than $100 billion in China.

© 2005 The Associated Press

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