The arms budget was decided by the former KMT government in the late 1990s. The KMT, however, shifted its position after losing the presidential election in 2000, and has been working with the PFP to block the bill in the legislature.

"The opposition alliance has prevented the arms bill from making it onto the legislative agenda 31 times, disabling the country's self-defense capability," he said.

Even so, Chen said his government would try hard to enhance Taiwan's self-defense capability and maintain cross-strait peace, which he regarded as Taiwan's biggest responsibility.

The ceremony was chaired by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng. More than 200 international guests from the nation's allies were present to express their friendship toward Taiwan. They included Gambian President Yahya Jammeh and his wife, Honduran President Ricardo Maduro, Kiribati Vice President Teima Onorio and Belize Deputy Premier John Briceno and his wife.

Chen also stressed his determination to carry out reforms in six areas during the two-and-a-half years remaining in his presidency.

These included the second phase of financial reform, which is aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the finance industry, tax reform as well as changes to the preferential 18 percent interest rates offered to retired civil servants and teachers, in a bid to lessen social inequality. In addition, the president mentioned media reform eliminating the influence of political parties, government and the military on the media, political reform to probe properties inappropriately seized by political parties and constitutional reform to create a mechanism to deal with political stalemates.

"The six reform priorities stand on top of my administration agenda; more importantly, these are `contracts' with the people of Taiwan," Chen said.

Many believe that the DPP's ability to implement reforms and its clean image helped it win support after taking power in 2000, but recent scandals with the Kaohsiung MRT, extra bonuses for government-appointed representatives of state-run China Steel Corp and the like have harmed the party's image.

Responding to allegations of corruption, Chen pledged to implement a zero-tolerance policy.

"Any individual found to violate the laws of our nation will be sanctioned by the law and any corrupt misconduct will be subject to action by legal authorities, irrespective of [the individual's] background, credentials or social status," he said.

When asked by press for comments on the president's address, KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou said, "It is not fair for the president to ascribe the blame for the delay of the arms procurement bill to the opposition parties."

Ma, who sat next to DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang during the National Day celebration, said he spoke with Su about the speech.

"I told Su that so far the Ministry of National Defense is the only government department to have offered an explanation about the arm-sale bill, but it is about more than national defense," Ma said.

"The president took advantage of the occasion to criticize the opposition parties who could only sit and listen while having no chance to respond," Ma said, adding that Chen's statement had implied that the DPP also bears half the responsibility for the confrontation.

Chinese activist beaten and left for dead in Guangdong

THE GUARDIAN , CHONGQING

One of China's leading democracy activists has been beaten, possibly to death, in front of a British journalist. Lu Banglie was last seen lying unconscious on the side of the road on Saturday night after an assault by a mob which had joined forces with police to stop a car containing him, the London-based Guardian newspaper's Shanghai correspondent, Benjamin Joffe-Walt, and two other people.

They were on their way to Taishi, a village in Guangdong Province which has become the latest flashpoint in a growing wave of rural unrest that is proving the greatest threat to the rule of the Communist party since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Lu, one of a new breed of peasant leaders elected without the support of the party, had been in the area on the outskirts of Guangzhou City since August, encouraging residents to vote out officials accused of corruption.

With Taishi seen as a symbol of the movement for peasant rights, this was an increasingly dangerous activity. Several academics, lawyers and human rights campaigners have been arrested by police and threatened by a mob that villagers say has been hired to keep visitors away. Several journalists who have entered the area have been detained or beaten, most recently last Friday, when correspondents for Radio France and the South China Morning Post were assaulted.

In Saturday's attack, Joffe-Walt said the car was stopped on a road outside Taishi by a group of about five police, five soldiers and as many as 50 people in plain clothes. The uniformed men soon left and then the mob set upon Lu, dragging him out of the car and kicking him unconscious. They continued the assault for several minutes after he lost consciousness.

"I was convinced he was dead and thought they were going to do the same to us," Joffe-Walt said.

But he, his assistant and their driver escaped with being roughed up.

The three were taken to Wuyutou town hall for questioning, leaving Lu behind. The Guardian has been unable to confirm what happened to Lu.

Locals are too frightened to talk to foreign journalists, but several have risked retribution to call intermediaries. According to one source, Taishi has been in mourning since they saw a police car -- rather than an ambulance -- take away Lu's body.

Wuyutou police said they had received reports that Lu had been taken to hospital, but that he had been released and was "fine."

The three nearest hospitals said that no one had been admitted yesterday.

Groups ask pan-blues to stop bill

DON'T DO IT: A coalition of political interest groups yesterday called on the pan-blue alliance not to pass the controversial `cross-strait peace advancement' bill

BY KO SHU-LING

STAFF REPORTER

A coalition of private political groups yesterday made a last-ditch call on the opposition pan-blue alliance, asking them to refrain from passing the controversial "cross-strait peace advancement" bill, scheduled for a showdown at the legislature today.

"We strongly oppose the bill because it is unnecessary and unconstitutional," said Hawang Shiow-duan, chairwoman of the Taipei Society and chairperson of the department of political science at Soochow University.

If the bill passes the legislature, she said, the opposition parties will be running the risk of shooting themselves in the foot if they insist on enacting a law for the sake of their parties' interests rather than those of the public and the country.

"The pan-blue camp might want to take into consideration that they may someday become minority parties in the legislature," she said. "What are they going to do then?"

Hawang made the remarks during a news conference held yesterday morning to voice the coalition's opposition to the attempt by the pan-blue camp, which enjoys a slim majority in the legislature, to pass the "peace advancement bill."

Hawang said that the piece of legislation is not necessary because the duties specified for the "cross-strait peace committee," which would be established under the bill in proportion to the number of seats each party holds in the legislature, are already carried out by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Straits Exchange Foundation.

Under the proposed bill, the committee would be authorized to conduct 11 kinds of exchange with China, including negotiating issues such as cross-strait direct transportation links, a cross-strait free-trade zone, a cross-strait demilitarized zone, a cross-strait peace agreement and a cross-strait summit.

The committee would also strive to have China and Taiwan each send a representative to participate in non-political international organizations.

Hawang also criticized the bill for empowering the Legislative Yuan to earmark and review the budget for the committee.

The Constitution mandates that the Executive Yuan is the government body that proposes government budgets for the review of the legislature.

"It is a clear violation of the jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan," Hawang said.

Allen Houng, chairman of the Constitution Reform Alliance, said it baffled him as to why the pan-blue camp aspires to pass an unconstitutional piece of legislation.

"The only logical explanation I can come up with is that they think that they, as the majority in the legislature, should call the shots and run the country," he said.

"If that is the case, I call on the pan-blue alliance to support constitutional reform and change the government system to either a presidential or a parliamentary system," he said.

Houng also expressed concern over the People First Party's (PFP) aggressive approach to push for the passage of the bill today.

The PFP caucus has vowed to team up with its ally, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), to push the bill through "regardless of the cost," including possibly violent disruptions to legislative proceedings.

Huang Yu-lin, a board member of the Taiwan Peace Foundation, called on KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou to restrain his party members from joining efforts with the PFP to pass the contentious bill.

He also expressed his foundation's opposition to setting the "1992 consensus" and "one China" policy as premises for cross-strait talks.

Although his foundation supports signing a cross-strait peace agreement with China, Huang said that such an accord must be ratified by the people.

The people must also have the final say on inking or establishing cross-strait direct transportation, a cross-strait free-trade zone, a cross-strait demilitarized zone, a cross-strait peace agreement or joint participation in non-political international organizations, he said.

Missiles will not sink Taiwan

By Kengchi Goah

China has deployed more than 700 land-based, conventional missiles aimed at Taiwan from across the Taiwan Strait.

The sheer number of the missiles, their exaggerated destructive power and the fear associated with them have over the past few years asphyxiated Taiwan's political transformation. In the grip of such fear, one tends to be drowned by myth rather than facts. So what is the reality of China's conventional missile threat?

On April 19, 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed, killing 168 people and injuring more than 800. The building did not collapse, but the north side of the 8-story, 30m tall structure was sheared away. What caused the damage was a small Ryder truck packed with more than two tonnes of ammonium nitrate and nitromethane (fertilizer) and parked next to the building.

On October 12, 2000 in Aden, Yemen, the US Navy destroyer USS Cole was attacked, killing 17 and injuring 39. The ship did not sink, but the blast ripped a 12m by 18m hole in the ship's port side. What caused the damage was a small inflatable watercraft packed with almost a tonne of high explosives and slammed into the ship by a fanatical suicide bomber.

During the first Persian Gulf War, the war in Serbia, and the current war in Iraq, the US military showered thousands of precision-guided, half-tonne missiles over enemy territories. However, precision does not equate with complete target destruction or enemy surrender. In all cases, it was ground troops backed by tanks that gave the biggest bang and defeated the enemy.

On Sept. 21, 1999, an earthquake struck Taiwan. Apartment buildings toppled, highway bridges collapsed, athletic fields were twisted and more than a thousand people perished. As a matter of fact, such an earthquake is thousands of times more destructive than thousands of missiles raining from the sky.

Clearly, even precision-guided missiles equipped with conventional warheads will bring only very limited destruction. It is the psychological fear that magnifies the potential physical destructions. And that is precisely how China is playing the game: creating fear in the Taiwanese public.

The missiles China has deployed are all unguided and weigh less than a tonne. Lacking guidance and navigation, the missiles' targeting accuracy is significantly reduced, and so is its destruction. Blindly shooting million-dollar missiles against Taiwan is extremely uneconomical. Simply put, except for making hundreds of holes in the ground, missiles will not sink Taiwan.

Kengchi Goah

Cranbury, New Jersey

Boost the nation's defenses

By Victor Chou

China President Hu Jintao brought up the theory of China's "peaceful development" while meeting recently with US President George W. Bush. China considers this an extension of its "peaceful rise" theory, and its intention is to use the phrase to quell doubts stemming from the "China threat" theory.

Hu said that China needs a peaceful external environment to boost development and will show goodwill in order to maintain good relations with the US. But China's record clearly shows that "peaceful development" is just an illusion created in service of the Chinese Communist Party's time-honored "united front" strategy.

On the Taiwan issue, Hu said that China will take action to ease cross-strait relations and pursue dialogue. Granted, China has made concrete gestures toward Taiwan, such as offering a gift of two pandas, eliminating tariffs on Taiwanese fruit, decreasing Taiwanese students' tuition in China and letting Chinese tourists visit Taiwan. So much for their "soft" strategy.

But at the same time, China has never given up its threats of military force against Taiwan. It continues its military exercises aimed at the nation. In the diplomatic arena, it has aggressively suppressed the country's drive to be admitted to the UN.

Moreover, China has continuously engaged in psychological and legal warfare against Taiwan, including its enactment of the "Anti-Secession" Law. This is a serious fact that the Taiwanese public must face.

We can see in speeches by Chinese Communist Party leaders that the threat of using military force against Taiwan remains, and that Beijing has not adjusted its basic "one China" principle.

The "peace" Hu referred to in his theory of "peaceful development" is nothing more than part of Beijing's divide-and-conquer strategy. China has calculated that this is the best way to deal with the Taiwan "problem" for now. Despite showing goodwill on economic and trade issues, China never gives up its preparations to use military force against Taiwan.

Beijing is still firmly convinced that a cross-strait war can't be avoided, and this explains China's two-pronged strategy.

In light of this, we must strengthen our national defense and raise a public alert. Only this way can we deter China from military maneuvering and ensure that the 23 million people of Taiwan continue to enjoy wealthy and secure lives.

Victor Chou

Taipei