http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&ncid=535&e=17&u=/ap/20040117/ap_on_re_as/taiwan_referendum
Taiwan Tones Down Referendum Language
Sat Jan 17, 9:54 AM ET
By STEPHAN GRAUWELS, Associated Press Writer
TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan's leader should be able to smooth relations with the island's most important friend, the United States, now that he has toned down the language for a March 20 referendum on how to deal with China's missile threat, analysts said Saturday.
President Chen Shui-bian caused some rare friction with America by originally proposing a strongly worded ballot issue that bashed China for threatening this island with 500 missiles, deployed just across the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait.
Washington criticized the referendum as unnecessary because the result was already known: Most Taiwanese oppose the missiles.
U.S. officials also said they were worried the vote would feed tensions between the China and Taiwan, rivals who split amid civil war in 1949.
Not willing to antagonize America for long, Chen watered down the referendum and announced Friday that the vote would focus on Taiwan's security needs and would not be a protest against China. He said voters would be asked whether Taiwan should beef up its anti-missile defenses if China refuses to withdrawal the missiles and renounce the threat of force against Taiwan.
The ballot also will ask voters if Taiwan should open talks with China, Chen said.
Washington was quick to react, and the first words ? though cautious and vague ? seemed promising for Chen.
"We certainly welcome any statements that confirm Taiwan's commitment to the status quo now and in the years ahead," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was examining Chen's statements and he would not say if he was satisfied with them. But he said, "I think President Chen has shown a little flexibility in the way those two questions have been worded."
In Taiwan, analysts said Chen succeeded in defusing tension with Washington.
"President Chen has landed safely," said Emile Sheng, a political scientist at Taipei's Soochow University.
"Washington will not endorse the referendum, but will not oppose it either," Sheng predicted, adding there was nothing controversial in the referendum's phrasing.
The wording was the last compromise after pressure from Washington had been stronger than expected, he said.
Another Taiwanese academic also saw benefits to relations with Washington from Friday's referendum announcement.
"The wording is helpful for him to minimize worries from the United States," said Tai Wan-chin, a professor of international relations at Tamkang University in Tamshui, Taiwan.
Taiwan's opposition should also be satisfied, Tai said. "The opposition should feel relieved that the referendum will be much less provocative than earlier thought," he said.
However, Taiwan's opposition stuck to its position that the referendum was unnecessary and illegal.
Chen is calling the referendum under a provision of a new law that only allows him to call such a vote when Taiwan's sovereignty faces an imminent threat.
But the opposition said there is no such threat, and on Saturday detailed steps it would take to block the referendum.
Commentators said the opposition's strategy to challenge the referendum also carried risks. By blocking the vote ? Taiwan's first islandwide referendum ? the opposition could appear to be undemocratic and this could turn off voters, said Soochow University's Sheng said.
Meanwhile, the public does not seem convinced the vote is necessary. In a survey conducted by cable station TVBS late Friday, 53 percent of respondents said there was no need for a referendum on an anti-missile defense, while only 30 percent said the vote was necessary.
Asked how they would vote, 42 percent said they favored more anti-missile systems, while 36 percent said they did not.
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