Chen Shui-bian is good at going tougher and tougher. From the New York Times:
President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan on Thursday denounced a peace overture from President Hu Jintao of China that has received a cautious welcome here from both candidates for the presidential election next March.
“It is very clear now that if we were to sign such a peace treaty under the framework of the ‘one China’ principle, then I think this would mean, for the 23 million people of Taiwan, a treaty of surrender,” Mr. Chen said in a 90-minute interview at the presidential palace here.
On Monday, Mr. Hu suggested during his speech at the opening of the Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing that the mainland and Taiwan conclude a peace agreement ending the formal state of hostility that has endured since Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists lost China’s civil war in 1949 and retreated to Taiwan. [Full Text]