China dismisses Taiwanese buffer proposal as 'deceitful'

BEIJING -- China dismissed a recent Taiwanese proposal to establish a buffer zone as "deceitful" yesterday and warned the island's government that going ahead with a planned referendum will "endanger peace" and "provoke confrontation" with the Chinese mainland.

The harsh statement from Zhang Mingqing, deputy director and spokesman for the government's Taiwan Affairs Office, dramatized China's relentless opposition to the referendum being organized for March 20 by Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian. It was the latest in a crescendo of warnings that the referendum could provoke a strong Chinese reaction, with a military response the unspoken but clearly understood danger.

The Beijing government has expressed fear the referendum -- although it does not deal directly with Taiwan's status -- is designed as a precedent for a later vote asking the island's 23 million inhabitants whether they want to declare formal independence from the mainland. Seeking to head off the danger, the Chinese government yesterday continued pressing the United States to intervene and stop the referendum.

A senior Pentagon official in Beijing for military talks said Chinese leaders raised the request for US intervention with him again during his rounds, which included meetings with Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, and Xiong Guangkai, deputy chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army. The official, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and Planning Douglas Feith, said he did not respond in detail because the matter is being handled through diplomatic, not military, channels.

"Other people are working that," he told a group of reporters.

But Feith said he urged the Chinese to lower tensions by reducing the number of short-range ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan. "We expressed our concern about the Chinese missile buildup across from Taiwan and made the point we have important shared interests and we don't think those interests are served by the missile buildup," he said. "That does not contribute to a reduction of tension."

Feith said the Chinese, in response, did not indicate any willingness to redeploy the estimated 500 missiles from their bases in southern China near the Taiwan Strait, 100 miles of water that separates the 13,500-square-mile island from the Chinese mainland.

US officials repeatedly have made clear they regard the referendum as unnecessary trouble in the tense standoff over Taiwan's status. But the Bush administration has resisted China's persistent appeals to step in more forcefully and persuade Chen to call it off.

Chen, long an advocate of Taiwanese independence, announced last year he was going to ask voters whether his government should demand that China withdraw the missiles, which are seen as a means of pressure to back up China's threat of military action should Taiwan unilaterally declare independence. The government in Beijing regards the island as part of China and has made reunification the central issue in its foreign and military policies.

President Bush, during a visit to Washington in December by China's Premier Wen Jiabao, expressed displeasure at Chen's plans, saying the United States opposes any Taiwanese action that could be interpreted as a unilateral move toward independence. That statement was hailed in Beijing and regarded as a success for Wen.

Subsequently, Chen altered the referendum, seeking to make it more acceptable to Washington, but he refused to call it off. As things now stand, Taiwanese will be asked whether they want to open new talks with China and whether the island should acquire more advanced antimissile defenses if China refuses to withdraw its missiles.

Since the language was changed, Bush administration officials have continued to criticize Chen for insisting on holding the vote, but have failed to respond to China's appeals for action. Feith, in his remarks to reporters, reiterated the US position that neither side should take any unilateral action to change Taiwan's status. But he also recalled that the Bush administration remains committed to helping Taiwan defend itself and opposes "any action that smacks of coercion or intimidation."

"I don't think anybody should talk lightly about military action," he said, referring to statements from Chinese officers suggesting a military response may be necessary to Chen's move. "Nobody benefits from talk of war that will get everybody tense and increase danger."

Chen, who is running for reelection in voting scheduled March 20 alongside the referendum, suggested Feb. 3 that China and Taiwan should exchange envoys and establish a demilitarized zone around the strait as a way to ease tension. The proposal was seen as a response to criticism from Washington and elsewhere that his referendum was needlessly provocative. With terms that seemed to suggest nation-to-nation relations, it was given little chance of a warm welcome in Beijing.

Zhang, the Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman, proved those expectations true in his briefing yesterday, China's first formal response to Chen's proposal.

"On the one hand, Chen Shui-bian is bent on having his way and pursuing a referendum that would provoke confrontation between peoples on both sides, sabotage cross-strait relations, and endanger peace in the Taiwan Strait," he said. "On the other hand, he has professed he would set up a so-called framework for cross-strait peace and stability. We think Chen Shui-bian's assertion is deceitful words."

At the same time, China promised to relax visa requirements for Taiwanese businessmen and students in China. The measure, announced by Han Yusheng, deputy director of the Public Security Ministry's entry and exit inspection bureau, was seen as a gesture toward the growing number of Taiwan businessmen who have interests in China, many of whom oppose Chen's reelection campaign because of the way he has managed the economy.

The Taiwan government's Mainland Affairs Council expressed "a high degree of regret" at Zhang's dismissal of the proposal.

It welcomed the visa relaxation but said China's treatment of Taiwanese and their property in China makes a "mockery" of such promises.