Recently, Chen Shui-bian has suddenly broken his silence and become active again. Harboring sinister motives and ignoring facts, he is vigorously playing a"sad situation card"and a "pressure-resistance card", he complains of injustice everywhere and tries to deceive public opinion, an action nothing more than his old "Taiwan independence" stuff, which he attempts to peddle to the international community. A most striking example is that on the evening of September 15 this year he crossed the ocean to conduct "dialogs" with the "UN Journalists' Association", in the way of exchanging views and news. In his so-called "address", he talked to international media a spate of words attacking the Chinese mainland and the United Nations.

Listed below are the prominent points:

First is he asserted "The UN Resolution 2758 only deals with the question of the People's Republic of China's representation in the United Nations and related agencies without granting China the right to represent the Taiwan people." This is utterly ridiculous! The UN Resolution 2758 had long ago thoroughly solved the question concerning China's representation in the United Nations politically, legally and procedurally, Taiwan is part of China, China's representation in the United Nations naturally includes all Chinese regions including Taiwan, the question of so-called "Taiwan's representation in the United Nations"simply does not exist. Regarding this, Chen Shui-bian intentionally pretends to be ignorant in an attempt to deliberately muddle the water.

Second is he claimed "a free and democratic country like Taiwan ought to be given rightful and dignified treatment by the international community, and should not become a breach in the universal membership principle of the United Nations, with the result that the 23 million Taiwanese people lose the internationally recognized ID card, and become an international nomadic people subjected to political isolation." This is equally rather baffling. Taiwan is a province of China, so a "free and democratic country" is simply out of the question; precisely because it is not a "sovereign state", so-called "universal membership principle" of the United Nations is totally not applicable to it. The key to deciding whether or not one should and can become a UN member lies in whether or not it is a sovereign state, it has nothing to do with the political system and with the size of population.

Third is he claimed "Before the unification of Germany, both East and West Germany were UN members; South and North Korea are currently UN members, which does not hinder the two sides from pursuing unification of the Korean Peninsula", so "stubbornly obstructing the Taiwan people from participating in the international community can only cause Taiwan and China to go farther and farther apart and hurt the feelings of people on both sides the Straits, which does not help normalize cross-Strait relations". He put cross-Strait relations on a par with East and West Germany, and South and North Korea, which are situations of different natures. The question of East and West Germany and South and North Korea was caused by international factors after WWII and was regulated by international agreements; whereas cross-Strait relationship is a historical question left over from the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the two cannot be mentioned in the same breath. Now East and West Germany have been unified, and South and North Korea will also be eventually unified. Currently the two sides of the Taiwan Straits are temporarily separated though, China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, however, brook no division, this is exactly an important foundation for realization of peaceful reunification, damage of which is absolutely intolerable.

Fourth is he asserted "Taiwan's participation in the United Nations"

is helpful to "Taiwan Straits peace and Asia-Pacific region security", only when the two sides of the Straits are put under the "UN supervision mechanism" can "differences be harmonized and solved through peace dialogs". This is all the more sheer nonsense. The "Taiwan independence" separatist stand Chen Shui-bian obstinately clings to and his provocative act of trying to create "one China, one Taiwan" in the international arena are the real biggest threat to cross-Strait peace and Asia-Pacific region security. The Taiwan issue is completely of China's internal affair, any attempt to internationalize the Taiwan question which is purely of China's internal affair can only make it more complicated and more unfavorable to a peaceful settlement, the Chinese government and Chinese people absolutely do not agree.

There are still many other absurdities in Chen Shui-bian's so-called "address", which are not enumerated here one by one. The four points mentioned above suffice to show that Chen Shui-bian to date still obstinately sticks to his separatist line and advocacy, he clings to his "one country on each side" or "one China, one Taiwan" remarks, he has not at all honored his promises made in his "May 20 speech"this year. He talks invariably about Taiwan, but always acts to make attempt at "Taiwan independence", he emphasizes Taiwan's "sovereign independence"and refuses to accept the "one-China principle". His "Taiwan independence dream" is going "deeper and deeper" and "sounder and sounder". It's time to jolt him and talk to him sharply.

Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, there does not exist the question of sovereignty. In his talk, Chen Shui-bian completely confounded sovereignty and non-sovereignty, with sovereignty and without sovereignty, and state and non-state. Since Chen Shui-bian himself majored in law, so it is impossible that he knows nothing about domestic laws, the international law and the "United Nations Charter". Then why has he done so? That's because he wants to befuddle and confuse public opinion, create a sad situation and strive for sympathy, so as to fish in troubled waters, and pave the way for "Taiwan independence". But this will get him nowhere.

This article was published on page 5 of People's Daily (Overseas Edition), September 20, 2004 and translated by People's Daily Online