Beijing is ready for anything from Taipei
Upping its psychological warfare against Taiwan, the Communist Party's propaganda organ has released an assessment of conditions on the island which says Beijing stands ready to take a hard or a soft line in the run-up to the March presidential elections.
'We meet the two hands [from Taiwan] with our hands,' says the report in the party central publicity department's Current Events, posted on Xinhua's website.
State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan made the threat more explicit in a recent speech, warning that Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's call for a referendum would raise cross-strait tensions, regardless of its wording, and would put relations in danger. He did not say how the mainland would respond if the vote went ahead.
The publicity department's report says Taiwan has mostly been playing hardball as Mr Chen determinedly pushes his independence agenda. Mr Chen has, it says, adroitly exploited the antagonism against his opponents Lien Chan and James Soong Chu-yu by making capital out of the referendum and constitutional reform issues, exposing the corruption of the Kuomintang, provoking the mainland and scrambling to enlist support from the US.
But Mr Chen has also shown his flexible side, for example by relaxing restrictions on trade with and investment in the mainland, the report says.
Nowhere in the report is the use of military force mentioned, although it repeats that cross-strait relations have reached a 'critical point' amid the struggle between pro-independence and anti-independence in a tight presidential race. The mainland must thwart any attempt to gain independence for Taiwan and strive to win the hearts of the island's people, it says.
According to the report the mainland will continue to promote cross-strait trade, while at the same time redouble efforts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically.
