Beijing warned Monday that independence-minded Chen Shui-bian still poses a big threat to cross-Straits peace and stability despite conciliatory remarks in his May 20 inauguration address.

Although he did not use the term of "one country on each side", Chen Shui-bian's May 20 speech brimmed with the concept of "Taiwan Independence" and foreshadowing of his attempt to split China, said Zhang Mingqing, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at a news conference Monday.

Zhang said that although Chen did not mention the time frame for writing a new "constitution" in 2006 and the referendum leading to "Taiwan Independence", he used ambiguous words, like "his personal proposal" and "the common understanding of the vast majority that will be reached", to describe his stances on whether the sovereignty, territory and "Reunification or Independence" issue would be included in the proposed "constitutional reform".

"Chen's expression carried the foreshadowing of his attempt to split China," Zhang acknowledged, "which will undermine the stability of the Taiwan Straits and the Asia-Pacific region."

Chen's speech, said Zhang, revealed that he still persisted in his stance of seeking "Taiwan Independence" and he had no sincerity to improve the cross-Straits relations.

"So the root of tensions in the Taiwan Straits has not been eliminated and the potential peril affecting peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region still exists."

In his inauguration speech, Chen did not completely rule out the possibility of touching on issues related to sovereignty, territory and the subject of reunification versus independence in the "constitutional" re-engineering project.

The Taiwan leader said only that as "consensus has yet to be reached on" such issues, he explicitly proposes that these particular issues be excluded from the present "constitutional" reforms.

Beijing views the plan for adopting a new "constitution" for the island as tantamount to a formal declaration of independence, which may trigger the use of non-peaceful means.

The statement issued by the Taiwan Work Office under the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council on May 17, noted Zhang, has explicitly demonstrated the Chinese Mainland's sincerity toward peaceful reunification, voiced the common aspiration and firm resolve of the 1.3 billion Chinese people to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity and offered a package of proposals for improved cross-Straits relations under the one-China principle.

The statement, as the Chinese Mainland's important document on the Taiwan question, has drawn a lot of positive response from the Taiwanese community and the international community, Zhang said.