Yesterday Beijing was critical of Taipei's attempt to promote
"Taiwan independence" by revising the island's high-school history
textbooks.
On instructions from Taiwan's "ministry of education", terms
such as "our country", "this country" and "the mainland" in the
textbooks had been changed to "China".
"We've noticed the developments. The political motive behind it
is to transform the island's education into a 'Taiwan independence'
ideological tool," Yang Yi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office
of the State Council explained at a regular briefing.
"Taiwan is an inseparable part of China," said Yang. "No matter
what tricks the secessionist forces play they can't change the
fact."
Yang also condemned Taiwan's "national palace museum" for
removing all the labels that identify half a million exhibits as
originating from the Chinese mainland. He called this a "despicable
act".
A resolution was adopted by Taiwan's "Executive Yuan" on January
17 barring the museum from identifying its exhibits as having been
transported from the Imperial Palace in Beijing.
Under the resolution the work of the museum was to be "the
collection, study and expatiation of 'domestic and foreign'
antiques and art pieces" and not "the collection, study and
expatiation of ancient Chinese art".
Opened in 1965 the Taipei museum houses 654,500 art works and
artifacts shipped from Beijing to Taiwan in 1949 when the
Nationalists retreated to the island during a civil war.
Mainland scholars have condemned the change. They say the
revised regulation ignores historic fact and is another attempt to
cut Taiwan's links to the mainland. "Regulations can be changed but
history can't," said Liang Jinsheng, a researcher at the Palace
Museum in Beijing.
In response to reports about the possible visit of senior
Kuomintang official Wang Jin-pyng to the mainland after the Chinese
Lunar New Year, Yang said: "We are willing to communicate with any
individual or group from Taiwan, as long as they uphold the
one-China principle and acknowledge the '1992 consensus'."
According to the consensus, both sides of the Straits agree that
there is only one China in the world despite their different
interpretation of the political meaning of "one China".
Taiwan media have reported that Wang, "president" of Taiwan's
"Legislative Yuan", may visit his ancestral home in east China's Fujian Province this year.
Yang also said the mainland "had noticed" media reports that the
former pro-independence leader of the island, Lee Tung-hui, is
looking forward to a mainland visit. He refused to elaborate on the
mainland's stance towards Lee's plan.
(China Daily February 1, 2007)