Beijing: Taiwan's plan to scrap a national unification council could revive fears in China that it is pushing for independence.
The plan to scrap the council was made public by none other than President Chen shui Bian. To make matters worse for China, the remark was addressed to visiting American Congressman Robert R Simmons.
America is opposed to President Chen's frequently voiced plans to declare Taiwan as independent of China. China sees Taiwan as a part of the mainland and has warned that any move towards independence would force China to intervene militarily and forcibly incorporate Taiwan.
Chen’s latest pro-independence comments are a dangerous sign that separatist forces could destroy cross-strait relations, China said on Wednesday.
China responded swiftly after Chen told Simmons in Taipei that the unification guidelines with the mainland "were absurd products of an absurd era" that should be abolished.
"This is a dangerous sign of the escalation of activities by Taiwan separatists," Xinhua news agency quoted Chen Yunlin, director of the mainland's cabinet-level Taiwan Affairs Office, as saying.
"If he (Chen) insists on having his way, then cross-straits relations will be severely destroyed and the fundamental interests of the Taiwan compatriots will be damaged."
Taiwan's Chen angered Beijing last month when he proposed scrapping the National Unification Council and National Unification Guidelines that the former ruling Kuomintang (KMT) created in 1990 for eventual reunification with mainland China.
China initially called him a troublemaker and destroyer of peace and stability following his controversial Lunar New Year speech.
(With AFP inputs)
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