Compatriots urged to battle Chen's moves
By Xiao Xing (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-10-25 21:57

The people of Taiwan Province were called on Monday to join with their mainland compatriots in the fight to safeguard national unity and counter Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian's splittist moves.

The call came at a forum in Beijing marking the 59th anniversary of the island province's return to China on October 25, 1945, after 50 years of Japanese occupation.

Organized by the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League -- one of China's eight non-communist parties, the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots and the National Society of Taiwan Studies, it was attended by more than 150 Taiwan compatriots living, working or studying in Beijing.

Chen's attempt to promote formal independence for the island goes against the will and fundamental interests of the entire Chinese people, declared the meeting.

It stressed that only the reunification between Taiwan and the mainland will benefit the well-being of all people across the Taiwan Straits.

Japan launched a war of aggression against China in 1894. In the following year, the imperial government of the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Shimonoseki, ceding the island to Japan.

China, the United States and Britain signed the Cairo Declaration on December 1, 1943, demanding that all the Chinese territories previously occupied by Japan, such as the northeastern parts of the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, be returned to China.

Taiwan was then returned to China on October 25, 1945 after Japan was defeated in World War II.

Yang Guoqing, president of the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots, said the return of Taiwan to China in 1945 indisputably proved Taiwan's status as an integral part of the nation.

Meanwhile, the Cairo Declaration, a key document of international law, provided effective legal evidence for the fact that both the mainland and Taiwan are part of China, something which is also recognized by the entire international community.

"So there is no way for 1.3 billion Chinese people to tolerate any attempt of the Taiwan authorities led by Chen to split Taiwan from China again," said 77-year-old Zheng Jian, a former Taiwan soldier who fought the Japanese occupiers.

He said Chen's pro-independence scheme which promote "one country at each side (of the Straits)" was an act of historical retrogression.

Under the leadership of Chen, the Taiwan authorities have been forging ahead with the so-called "constitutional" re-engineering project in order to permanently split the island from China.

Participants at the seminar called for closer cross-Straits exchanges to strengthen mutual understanding among people from Taiwan and the mainland.

Greater efforts are needed to help the younger generations of Taiwan know more about the ties between the people on both sides of the Straits, they said.

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