BEIJING, Aug 5: China warned Taiwan’s President Chen Shui-bian on Monday that he was leading his people towards “disaster” by calling for a referendum on the island’s future, and said it would never allow Taiwanese independence.

The angry response, China’s first in an escalating war of words, came despite an insistence from Taiwan’s top mainland policymaker that the island’s policy towards China remained unchanged.

“Chen Shui-bian is deceiving the will of the people by encouraging Taiwan independence, and is imposing the plot of a few hardened independence-seekers on all the people of Taiwan,” said Li Weiyi, a spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office.

“This will influence Taiwan’s economy, will harm the overall interests of Taiwan compatriots and bring disaster to Taiwan.”

Chen’s comments on Saturday marked an apparent turnaround from his usual policy of not antagonizing the mainland and a return to his pre-presidential advocacy of an independent Taiwan.

The move also spooked investors, with Taiwanese share prices falling nearly six percent on Monday.

“Taiwan’s future and destiny can only be decided by the 23 million people living on the island,” Chen told pro-independence campaigners in Tokyo via a video link.

“But how to make the decision when the time comes? The answer is what (we) have sought after — referendum.”

Chen further provoked Beijing’s ire by also stressing Taiwan’s statehood and independent sovereignty, saying that “each side (of the Taiwan Strait) is a country”.

Mainland leaders have loudly vowed to use military might against Taipei if it announces formal independence, indefinitely refuses to “reunify peacefully”, or is invaded or occupied by foreign forces.

Chen was leading Taiwan in this direction, Li said, and was trying “to cheat the Taiwanese people and to blind international public opinion”.

“We solemnly warn Taiwan splittists not to be mistaken: immediately rein in the horse which is on the brink of disaster and end all splittist activities,” he said.

“We will never allow any person in any form to split Taiwan from China.”

Li compared Chen’s comments with remarks made in 1996 by then-Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui — a hate figure in Beijing — who provoked fury by saying Taiwan should have equal “state-to-state” relations with China.

Lee’s comments unleashed some of the worst-ever cross-Strait tensions, as China launched a series of missile tests and war games in the Taiwan Strait before the island’s 1996 presidential election, which Lee won easily.

Taipei insisted on Monday that President Chen’s remarks contained nothing new.

“Our mainland policy is consistent, based on President Chen’s framework laid down in his inaugural speech...,” chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen of the Mainland Affairs Council said.

“Our efforts seeking ways to improve cross-straits ties and to resume dialogue with Beijing remain unchanged,” she told reporters, before heading to the US, where she will try to reassure the US administration about Chen’s comments.—AFP