Taiwan drops war games in bid to defuse Chinese anger over independence speech

TAIWAN has scrapped planned war games as part of efforts to defuse tensions with China, but Beijing has told President Chen Shui-bian he may risk attack if he presses ahead with a referendum on independence.

Taiwan’s military announced it was cancelling anti-submarine drills off eastern Taiwan set for August 15 to “avoid speculation and misunderstanding” after Mr Chen enraged Beijing by backing a referendum on formal independence for the island.

“The situation in the Taiwan Strait is tense. We cancelled the exercises to avoid misunderstanding,” a defence ministry spokesman said.

Beijing considers Taiwan a rebel province and has threatened to attack if the democratic island of 23 million people declares independence or drags its feet on unification talks.

Mr Chen said on Saturday that holding a referendum was a “basic human right” and that in reality there was “one country on each side” of the Taiwan Strait. This triggered an angry response from Beijing, which said he was leading the island to disaster.

However, on Tuesday, after his comments roiled financial markets and public opinion polls showed his support falling to record lows, Mr Chen said his remarks were oversimplified. He sought to soften his comments, saying “equal sovereignty” would be a more appropriate way to sum up his speech.

But China’s military and state-run official media appeared to be unimpressed with Mr Chen’s back-peddling, and renewed threats to invade the island.

Beijing’s China Daily quoted an unidentified senior military officer as saying Chen might risk attack if he pressed ahead with a vote on independence.