Taiwan says China 'biggest obstacle' to improved ties

May 31, 2006, 12:53 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan Wednesday slammed rival China for trying to cover up the fact that it is the 'biggest obstacle' to improved relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

'What (China's) Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said clearly indicates that (China) is the biggest obstacle in the improvement of cross- strait relations,' said the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan's top China policy planner body.

In a press release, MAC blamed China for causing cross-strait and regional tensions due to its rapid military build-up and persistent threat to invade the island.

MAC's comments came after TAO spokesman Li Weiyi said in Beijing Wednesday that a national security report recently released by Taipei exposes the 'obstinate persistence' of Taiwanese President Chen Shui- bian's Taiwan 'independence stance.'

Chen's stance serves only to damage cross-strait peace, Li said.

'That report focuses on smearing and attacking the motherland and deliberately drives a wedge between the feelings of the people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait,' Li said at a news conference.

MAC, however, said the 162-page report, issued earlier this month, gave an account of China's increasing military threats against the island so that people at home and abroad could better understand the situation the island is facing.

Rebuking Li's claims that the island released the report to promote Taiwan independence, MAC said it is a long-standing policy of the island's government to uphold 'Taiwanese identity' and to safeguard the sovereignty of Taiwan.

Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still considers the island an integral part of the mainland that must be brought back to the fold, warning it would attack if Taipei declared formal independence.