Leading mainland experts on Taiwan studies said Chen has maliciously exaggerated the mainland's military threat to the island in a bid to deceive and mislead the Taiwan people and international observers.

In his speech to mark the "national day'' of the "Republic of China,'' Chen demanded the mainland remove the missiles deployed along the Taiwan Straits and openly renounce the use of force against Taiwan.

"For only by engaging in rational discussions and allowing the doors of dialogue to be reopened can the antagonistic deadlock in cross-Straits relations be resolved,'' said Chen, also chairman of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Li Jiaquan, a senior researcher with the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Chen was again using his old political gimmick of passing the buck to Beijing to divert public attention from his much-flawed and inconsistent mainland policy.

Chen deceitfully tried to confuse right and wrong on the issue of which side is to blame for the deadlocked bilateral ties, Li said.

Li added that the current tension in cross-Straits relations should be blamed on Taipei's attempt to promote Taiwan independence rather than on Beijing's effort to crack down on pro-independence moves.

"Chen has deliberately described the island as being intimidated by the mainland in an attempt to gain world sympathy and trigger confrontation between people on both sides of the Straits,'' the researcher said.

"His false cry of a mainland threat in order to mask his pro-independence conspiracy unfortunately works to undermine the real development of stable cross-Straits relations.''

Li said the Taiwan leader has ignored the basic fact that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and Beijing is entitled to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity by any means necessary, which is acknowledged by most members of the international community.

The Chinese Government advocates the peaceful reunification of Taiwan and the mainland, but, at the same time, will not renounce the use of force, so as to deter any radical move to split the island from the motherland.

But Chen preached that "each side (of the Taiwan Straits) is a country'' on August 3 and said that he backed legislation for a referendum to decide Taiwan's future and destiny at an appropriate time.

The move, considered by Beijing to be an attempt to lead the island towards formal independence, has led to renewed tension in cross-Straits relations.

"Chen himself should be held fully accountable for the existing crisis in cross-Straits ties, which is a result of his radical remarks promoting Taiwan's independent sovereignty,'' said Guo Zhenyuan, a research fellow with the China Institute of International Studies.

Although Chen repeated neither his "one country on each side'' comments nor his support for a referendum on formal independence, he did insist that Taiwan's sovereignty must not be violated.

"We do know that Taiwan's sovereignty is inalienable and cannot be infringed upon,'' Chen told a gathering Thursday.

This once again demonstrates that the Taiwan leader continues to steadfastly cling to his pursuit of independence, according to Guo.

The researcher said that Chen should first take concrete steps to renounce his pro-independence overtures and amend the DPP's pro-independence party platform if he is sincere about developing cross-Straits relations.

The DPP party platform, approved in 1991, aims to establish an independent Taiwan republic with a new constitution.

Guo stressed that Beijing's refusal to renounce the possible use of force is basically meant to deter any attempts by die-hard separatist members like Chen and their foreign supporters to bring about "Taiwan independence.''

"By not undertaking to renounce the use of force, we are not targeting our Taiwan compatriots,'' Guo said.

"Chen has nothing to fear if he does not intend to engage in promoting Taiwan independence.''

(China Daily October 11, 2002)