China spurns Taiwan's peace overture

Chen called for peace talks with China in his National Day speech Sunday, but asserted that the island was a sovereign nation and not a mere province of China.

"When Chen Shui-bian says he wants to ease tensions, it is false. When he says he wants independence, it is true," Zhang Mingqing, a spokesman for Beijing's policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office, told a news conference.

Communist China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and has threatened to attack the democratic island of 23 million if it formally declares statehood.

Beijing is convinced Chen will push the envelope on independence in his current second and final four-year term.

Chen was pushing for Taiwan to become a normal, complete country by overhauling the island's constitution, Zhang said, adding that Taipei had sought to join the United Nations from which it was ousted in 1971 and to step up arms purchases.

"These lay bare his lies," Zhang said.

The spokesman accused Chen of "smearing and maliciously attacking the mainland motherland and recklessly worsening cross-Strait relations."

"He has no sincerity," Zhang said when asked when China would agree to contacts with Taiwan to reduce misunderstanding.

Formal independence for the self-ruled island was the "biggest threat to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region ... and would only bring great disaster."

"Taiwan independence (means) there will be no peace. Splitting (means) there will be no stability," he said, but stopped short of repeating a long-standing threat to use force.