In his October 10 speech Chen Shuibian shows no new idea, good will or sincerity, instead, he advocates "one country on each side", slanders and defames the mainland, said a number of scholars on the Taiwan question. They noted that Chen's arrogance in pushing for "Taiwan independence" will further worsen the cross-Straits relations.

The speech is permeated with the tone of "Taiwan independence" as expressed in "one country on each side", completely avoiding the basic question as contained in the "May 17 authorized statement" which calls on the Taiwan authorities to return to the One-China principle, said Xu Bodong, director of the Taiwan Research Institute of Beijing Union University.

Chen declares openly in his speech that "Taiwan is the Republic of China, and the Republic of China is Taiwan", which actually meant a disguised "rectification of the name of Taiwan" and "oral constitution making", the scholar pointed out. Taking the occasion of a gathering, Chen vigorously whipped up opinion for "Taiwan independence" in an attempt to expand the social base for "independence" and took a step forward to hasten the making of a "timetable for Taiwan independence".

When asserting that "Taiwan is a state which places sovereignty in the hands of the people and covers an area of 36,000 square kilometers, and which has a well-administered government and complete political system", Chen was peddling to the international community the sovereignty range and political system of the so-called "Taiwan state", this means an institutional upgrading of "Taiwan independence", said Wang Jianmin, a research fellow with the Taiwan Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Wang analyzed: an observation of Chen's speech this time and his behavior in the past half year shows that the Taiwan authorities are shifting from "gradual independence" to "offensive independence". He noted that Chen's speech falls far short of outside expectations of improving cross-Straits ties. Instead of showing genuine goodwill and sincerity, it unscrupulously fans up hostility toward the mainland and provokes confrontation between the two sides.

Chen tried every possible means in his speech to slander, blacken and "demonize" the mainland by describing the latter as "shadow of terror" and "dark forces", in an attempt to shift the responsibility for the instability between the two sides of the Straits to the mainland, said Luo Yuan, a scholar from the Academy of Military Sciences. Then, he pretended to show so-called "good intention" of developing cross-Straits ties, while actually he expected to cajole sympathy from the international community and thereby press the mainland to give up military pressure on the island. Luo held that taking a stand and attitude of hostility toward the mainland, Chen hypocritically proposed "establishing a military mutual-trust mechanism through consultations and negotiations", "jointly discussing ways to form 'code of conduct for the Straits'" and "making preparation for forming a "cross-Strait peaceful development committee", this proposal is a full expression of "sham peace, but real Taiwan independence". Luo further pointed out that Chen's speech is riddled with contradictions and conspiracies, which completely evaded the One-China principle and played dual tactics. The real intention behind the lies is to win time and space for "Taiwan independence--the founding a state" and the core is "sham goodwill, genuine Taiwan independence; the creation of antagonism and confrontation".

Scholars also pointed out that the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office's response to Chen's speech is correct and proper, adding that Chen's continued sliding down the road to "independence" has made the situation of cross-Strait relations more severe and reduced the maneuvering space for peace in the Taiwan Straits.

By People's Daily Online