Face Reality, Taiwan Chief Urges China
Telling China it is time to “face up to history and reality,” Taiwan’s president pledged Tuesday to continue his campaign to bolster the island nation’s international status.
President Lee Teng-hui was addressing a two-day congress of his governing Nationalist Party. A second round of Chinese missile tests near Taiwanese waters has coincided with the session. They are considered an attempt to intimidate Lee to stop pressing for international recognition.
The 72-year-old president has been under fire from party opponents who say his policies have needlessly provoked China. He is expected to declare his candidacy today for a second term in March elections.
Taiwan’s diplomatic offensive is “straightforward and just, and it will not hurt either side,” Lee said.
“We will carry out this policy and not accept any suppression,” he said.
Taiwan, seat of the Nationalists who fled the mainland after losing the civil war in 1949, is claimed by China as a renegade province with no sovereignty of its own.
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