DATE=4/10/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-TAIWAN (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-261116
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:


INTRO:  China has renewed its attacks on Taiwan's 
Vice-President-elect, Annette Lu, describing her as a 
lunatic whose advocacy of independence could bring 
disaster to the island.  VOA correspondent Roger 
Wilkison reports Monday is the third straight day in 
which China's state-owned news media have attacked Ms. 
Lu as a pro-independence extremist.


TEXT:  After opposition candidate Chen Shui-bian was 
elected as Taiwan's new president on March 18th, China 
adopted an attitude of restraint and said it would 
wait and see what he says and does after his 
inauguration next month.  China does not like Mr. Chen 
because his party's platform advocates formal 
independence for the island that China considers a 
wayward province.  But Mr. Chen backed away from that 
position during the campaign and made conciliatory 
gestures toward Beijing after he was elected.

Although it has not attacked Mr. Chen, China has, 
since Saturday, launched a barrage of invective 
against Vice-President-elect Lu, calling her -among 
other things--  the scum of the Chinese nation and a 
notorious advocate of independence.

What apparently riled Beijing was an interview Ms. Lu 
gave a Hong Kong cable TV station last week.  She was 
quoted as saying the relationship between China and 
Taiwan is that of distant relatives.  That, in 
Beijing's eyes, is tantamount to denying that Taiwan 
is an inseparable part of China, and, therefore, casts 
her in the role of a dangerous separatist.

China stepped up the attacks on Ms. Lu on Monday.  A 
front-page commentary in the People's Daily -the 
Communist Party newspaper- asks how Taiwanese can feel 
at ease with what it calls a lunatic advocate of 
Taiwan independence who could bring disaster to Taiwan 
at any time.  In its words, Ms. Lu intends to push 
Taiwan into the abyss of war.

Meanwhile, President-elect Chen told the Washington 
Post, Beijing's insistence that he acknowledge that 
Taiwan is part of China is hindering the resumption of 
cross-strait talks.  Mr. Chen says most Taiwanese 
reject Beijing's version of the one-China principle, 
which holds that Taiwan is a mere province of China.  
China has been stepping up pressure on Mr. Chen to 
sign on to the one-China principle as a pre-condition 
for talks.  (SIGNED) 

 NEB/RW/FC 



10-Apr-2000 05:24 AM EDT (10-Apr-2000 0924 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.