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China new Taiwan tirade hits soft target

BEIJING: China's new campaign of vitriol and threats against Taiwan's vice president-elect, launched at the weekend, looks ominous but may be a way of letting off steam as Beijing gropes for new policies toward the democratic island.

Analysts said on Monday fresh diatribes labelling Annette Lu "scum" for remarks which China perceived as pro-Taiwan independence may be nothing more than Beijing lashing out at an easy target while warily watching the incoming government.

China reopened its crude campaign as the Clinton administration was lobbying hard for Congress to bless Beijing's bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

But that may reflect nothing more than Beijing's poor public relations sense coupled with inter-agency rivalries, they said.

Most telling about the new propaganda campaign against Taiwan independence six weeks before President-elect Chen Shui-bian takes office is that Beijing's fury has been directed only at the Harvard-educated lawyer Lu, his vice-president.

Lu has advocated independence in the past and Beijing had probably written her off long ago as someone they could never deal with, said a Western diplomat.

"She's quite a soft target and attacking her is a way of appearing strong and setting down markers without attacking Chen himself," he said.

Huang Jiashu, a Taiwan researcher at People's University in Beijing who often amplifies government policy, played down the significance of the remarks, saying "China has always fought Taiwan independence and always will."

CAUTION YIELDS TO IMPATIENCE?

China has been cautious in responding to the victory of Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party on March 18, partly stunned that its heavy-handed campaign warnings against him backfired and caught offguard by conciliatory gestures from Taiwan.

After weeks of repeating it would watch what Chen did and listen to what he had to say, last week China showed impatience on its key demand that he embrace the "one China" policy that holds Taiwan and the mainland are parts of a united China.

First Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen called on Chen to give a "full response" to Beijing's demand he embrace the "one China" policy as a precondition for talks.

Next, an army newspaper warned him to "think carefully" and said Beijing's terms were a precondition, not a topic, for talks.

Finally state media, seizing on statements by Lu that history had made Taiwan and China distant relatives, the cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office and key state media branded her "perverse", "shameless", a "traitor" and "scum of the nation".

Chen has offered to hold talks with Chinese leaders and said he is willing to discuss the "one China" policy. But so far he has refused to embrace Beijing's formula.

China seems to be holding its tongue on Chen.

"They still are waiting to see what he will do, so it's too early to attack him just yet," said the western diplomat.

China, faced with an impatient military at home and a Taiwan populace uninterested in reunification with the communist mainland, has to keep attention riveted on Taiwan until Taipei's change of government on May 20, said a European diplomat.

The diplomat said tough Chinese rhetoric was aimed at soothing a hawkish military, cowering a Taiwanese public and keeping the attention of the United States fixed on the issue.

"It's a case of silence not being golden. They really want the Americans just to keep telling everybody how much they love them and this is their hamfisted way of doing that," he said.

China's leadership has a history of scoring own goals in dealing with Taiwan and its friends in the United States. Most recently, its belligerent threats against Taiwan helped Chen, its least favorite candidate, win the presidency and gave critics of Beijing new ammunition ahead of the WTO debate.

The latest Chinese invective comes less than a week before U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley is to lead a delegation of undecided legislators to Beijing to convince them to vote in favour of permanent normal trading relations status next month.

Daley said last week in Beijing the U.S. vote on China's trade status was "about the overall relationship, not just the economic relationship with China". Critics have raised everything from Beijing's human rights record to Tibet and Taiwan.-Reuters