Taiwan issue specialist Xu Bodong on Friday slammed Chen Shui-bian's May 20 speech, saying that although it was delicately packaged, the "Taiwan Independence" essence, which also showed in his inaugural speech four years ago, was not changed.

"Chen played his old tricks again, aiming to cheat public opinion and to continue his 'Taiwan Independence' policy," said Xu,who is also director of the Taiwan Institute under Beijing Union University, in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

He said Chen's May 20 speech was mild on the surface with cautious wording, but in fact, he hid barbs in his remarks. He sidestepped the crux of the matter-- the One China Principle, while promoting his "one country on each side" separatist proposition with hidden messages.

Xu analyzed that although the term of "one country on each side" did not appear in Chen's speech, the ghost of "one country on each side" lingered in his whole remarks as he used the term "Taiwan and China" several times in his speech.

Facts had proved that he still exerted his utmost to promote the "one country on each side" separatist proposition, Xu said.

"Chen still stubbornly sticks to the 'Taiwan Independence' stance," said Xu. In Chen's speech, he stressed that Taiwan's future should be decided by 23 million Taiwan people, advocated improving Taiwan's "self-defense" ability and asked a "certain country" to help safeguard Taiwan's peace and the Asia-Pacific area's stability.

All those remarks exposed his "Taiwan Independence" stance, Xu commented.

On Chen's assertion of hoping to resume cross-Straits dialogue and to extend cross-Straits communication, Xu said Chen's "remark on peace" totally dodged the One China principle, adding that he still played on words, aiming to cheat world opinion again.

As long as he did not agree that both the mainland and Taiwan belong to the one and same China, Taiwan could not obtain true "peace" and the stability and development of the cross-Straits relation could not be achieved, Xu continued.

Chen's expression demonstrated his "sham". All the people who know what Chen did during the past four years will easily see through Chen's clumsy tricks, Xu said.

On Chen's assertion that all topics in regard to the question of sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence or unification were not fit to be involved in the proposed "Constitutional reform", Xu said it was a concession he had to make under the intensive pressure from the Taiwan island and outside world.

At the same time, it demonstrated that the "Taiwan Independence" stance was against the political reality and doomed to go toward a dead end.

Xu pointed out that the statement issued by the Taiwan Work Office under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council on Monday had pointed to two roads for Chen.

But Chen chose a dangerous road, making the cross-Straits relations not optimistic. In the future, compatriots on the two sides of the Taiwan Straits as well as all Chinese in the world have an urgent task to curb the "Taiwan Independence" stance and to safeguard the peace and stability of Taiwan island and the Asia-Pacific area.
 
(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2004)