TAIWAN: China has given Taiwan a slap on the wrist over a national security report that paints Beijing as a security threat and says communist China would do well to learn from Taiwan's democratic model.
Taiwan has also pledged to increase its defence budget by 20 per cent, a move which the mainland Chinese say "showed the Taiwan authorities' obstinate stance aimed at independence".
It is the latest episode of ongoing tensions between China and Taiwan. Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province since the self-ruled island split from the mainland after the civil war in 1949 and has threatened to invade the island of 23 million people if it declares formal independence.
The report was released earlier this month to coincide with the sixth anniversary in office of President Chen Shui-bian. In one cheeky section, the report said Beijing could avert looming social chaos by learning from Taiwan's transformation into a democracy, prompting an angry rebuke from Beijing.
"This report . . . is a wanton assault and slander to the mainland," Li Weiyi, a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said yesterday, adding that Mr Chen was using the report to provoke China. "It is focused on vilifying and attacking the motherland and deliberately drives a wedge between the feelings of compatriots on both sides of the strait," Mr Li told a news conference.
Mr Chen rejects Beijing's claims of sovereignty, taking the line that Taiwan people must be allowed to choose their own path, and numbers independence from China as an option.
For its part, Beijing has refused to deal with Mr Chen since he took power in 2000 and has tried instead to enhance ties with opposition parties.
The report was issued as Mr Chen was under pressure at home over a scandal involving his son-in-law. Chao Chien-ming, a doctor and husband of Chen's daughter, was accused of reaping millions by using insider information from the real estate developer Taiwan Development Corp.