By Wu Yuan: “Chen Shui-bian Collaborates With ‘Tibetan Independent’ Forces” in Chinese.
[FBIS Translated Text]
NOTE: Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao is a Chinese government owned daily newspaper
On 20 January, Chen Shui-bian attended the opening ceremony of his personally-controlled and -directed “Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation.” In his opening address, he said that “it is wrong for Taiwan to have taken Mongolian people and Tibetan people, especially Tibetans in exile in India, as people of mainland China,” adding that “naturally, many problems can be readily addressed if we do not treat Mongolian people and Tibetan people as people of mainland China, and Taiwan-Mongolia and Taiwan-Tibet relations will be improved.” Chen Shui-bian made these remarks to back up a small handful of “Tibet independence” elements in exile in India and to boost their morale, exposing once again his conspiracy of stepping up efforts to collaborate with “Tibet independence” elements in a vain attempt to split the motherland.
Since Lee Teng-hui took charge of the administration and Chen Shui-bian assumed power, they have been assisting “Tibet independence” elements and have time and again invited the Dalai Lama, chieftain of Tibetan separatists, to carry out activities in Taiwan. The Dalai Lama and other “Tibet independence” elements have stayed in Taiwan to advocate splittist activities under the disguise of “doing missionary work” and promoting “human rights.” Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian have won over and collaborated with the Dalai Lama in an attempt to engage in splittist activities by echoing with the joint “Taiwan independence” and “Tibet independence” forces.
Taiwan media quoted the remarks by Day Sheng-tong, chairman of the “Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation” and Taiwan national policy adviser, as saying that this foundation is a quasi-official organization and half of its budget is provided by the Taiwan authorities. The Taiwan “Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” the “Ministry of Education,” and the “Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission” are directors and supervisors of this foundation; this foundation will serve as a conduit between the Taiwan government and the Tibetan government-in-exile. Evidently, Chen Shui-bian has openly put himself in the same position as Dalai Lama and carried out organized and planned splittist activities. On 21 January, Chen Shui-bian met with the outgoing Tenzin Phuntsok Atisha, chairman of the Tibet Religious Foundation of the Dalai Lama. He said that prior to Tanzin Phuntsok Atisha’s departure, he received him with the same mode, common practice, and the same kind of ceremony as he has given to other outgoing “representatives of foreign missions in Taiwan” and “ambassadors,” adding that in the future, Tibetan people coming to Taiwan will no longer need to “apply for visas” from the “Ministry of Internal Affairs” but from the “Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
Obviously, Chen Shui-bian has brazenly regarded the Dalai Lama’s “representative to Taiwan” as an “ambassador,” and Tibetan people as “foreigners.” It is evident that Chen Shui-bian has treated the treasonous Dalai Lama clique in exile in India as “the government of a country.” How arrogant he is to brazenly echo and support the “Tibet independence” forces.
Tibet is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory and its sovereign rights should not be separated from China. Tibetan compatriots are members of the big family of the Chinese nation. However, Chen Shui-bian repeatedly claimed that he “would not treat Tibetan people as people of mainland China” in an attempt to take Tibetan compatriots as people of another “country.” At the same time, he also time and again invited the Dalai Lama to Taiwan. From this, we can see that he is continuously escalating splittist activities in Taiwan.
The anti-Taiwan independence momentum built up by the Chinese people, including Taiwan compatriots, as well Chinese people at home and abroad and overseas Chinese, is at an all-time high, when today we are celebrating the 8th anniversary of “Jiang Zemin’s eight-point proposal.” Chen Shui-bian’s acts of going against the trend will surely be badly battered.
