Taiwan bill spells 'hidden trouble', says China

It was the closest thing to an official reaction from China, which has threatened invasion if Taiwan, ideologically split from Communist China since the end of the civil war in 1949, drags its feet on reunification.

Taiwan's parliament passed a watered-down referendum bill that fell short of allowing a vote on independence, backing away from an immediate showdown with China ahead of the island's March 2004 presidential elections.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

"Some articles of the bill still leave room for the pro-independence forces in Taiwan to conduct separatist activities and will be the hidden trouble hindering the reunification of the Chinese nation," Xinhua said in a dispatch from Taipei.

Taiwanese opposition legislators threw out a radical version of the bill proposed by President Chen Shui-bian's independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

There was no comment from China's policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office or Foreign Ministry on Friday, apparently fearing further interference in Taiwan politics may backfire -- helping Chen and hurting his opposition rival who opposes independence -- ahead of elections.

But analysts said there was no immediate risk of war.

"Immediate danger has been avoided temporarily," Liu Guochen, one of China's top Taiwan watchers, told Reuters.

"But there are hints of what is to come," said Liu, who correctly predicted Chen would win Taiwan's 2000 presidential elections and end five decades of Nationalist Party rule.

China had warned the island of war and a "strong response" in the run-up to passage of the bill.

Taiwan's parliament, controlled by an opposition coalition with a razor-thin majority, approved the referendum bill allowing its people to vote on sovereignty and other issues.

But lawmakers dropped the most controversial part of the legislation -- a clause explicitly saying referendums can be held on independence or on changing the island's name or flag.

Instead, the bill has a clause that says a "defensive referendum" on Taiwanese sovereignty is permitted in the event of an attack from China, and another more ambiguous article that allows referendums to approve changes to the constitution.

China's Guangming Daily, an official newspaper widely read by intellectuals, carried a commentary by historian Yu Pei accusing Chen of "playing with fire" and calling him a "troublemaker."

The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, made no mention of the vote. But its sister publication, the Global Times, called the referendum bill "a very dangerous" move.

"It will be difficult to ease the tension in the Taiwan Strait in the short term," it said.