The messages from Beijing on Tuesday did little to ease the grief and suffering of the Taiwanese, reeling from the worst natural disaster to strike the island in 64 years.
That afternoon, the mainland's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue thanked foreign governments that had offered aid to Taiwan while the Chinese Red Cross said those governments must inform it before they could make any deliveries.
The Taiwanese, in the wake of an earthquake that killed more than 2,000, were angry at what they saw as the arrogance of communist leaders in Beijing presuming to speak for them and upset at how a human tragedy had become but another act in a civil war that has lasted more than 70 years.
'The aid we receive has nothing to do with Beijing,' said Wang Kuo-min, a schoolteacher speaking from Taipei. 'It does not represent us. The communists have not ruled Taiwan for a single day. It is we, not they, who decide what aid we will receive.' On Wednesday, in a dress rehearsal for the biggest military parade in China's history on October 1, the People's Liberation Army rolled through the streets of Beijing the artillery, missiles, aircraft and landing craft it would use for the attack on Taiwan its leaders have repeatedly threatened.
This display of firepower is primarily intended for Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui, as a warning of what Beijing can do if he does not revoke his declaration in July that cross-strait ties must be on a 'state-to-state' basis, something which will oblige Beijing to recognise his government.
The earthquake, which has occurred in the middle of this bitter and tangled relationship, will offer at best only temporary respite from the anger flowing across the Taiwan Strait. There will be no replay of the unexpected warmth between Greece and Turkey as a result of the recent Turkish quake disaster.
Beijing's initial response was exemplary. President Jiang Zemin issued a statement of sympathy for the victims and concern for those affected.
