BEIJING -- Calling Taiwan's vice president-elect the "scum of the country" and an incurable separatist, China on Saturday stepped up pressure on its island neighbor by renewing its warnings against moving toward independence.
The harsh rhetoric China unleashed Saturday contrasted with the wait-and-see stance it has adopted since a March 18 vote forced out the Nationalists who had ruled Taiwan since they fled the mainland amid civil war 51 years ago.Annette Lu, the vice president-elect, and President-elect Chen Shui-bian have said they support a formal declaration of independence for the island only if Beijing attacked.
But Lu has harshly criticized China for threatening to use force to assert its claim to Taiwan, and she supports assertive diplomacy by Taiwan to counter Beijing's attempts to isolate the island.
The warnings Saturday coincided with a report by a Chinese-backed newspaper in Hong Kong, the Wen Wei Po, that China's People's Liberation Army has sent more troops, including a missile unit, for duty rotation in Fujian province, which faces Taiwan.
China's comments came in a statement from its Taiwan Affairs Office, a body within the State Council, or Cabinet. It accused Lu of provoking "animosity between the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait" with comments to Hong Kong media suggesting the two sides have grown apart.
"In fact, she has become the scum of the Chinese nation," said the statement, issued by the state-run Xinhua News Agency and carried on the front page of Saturday's People's Daily.
The statement accused Lu of using talk of threats from Beijing to incite Taiwanese against unification with the mainland.
"She uses poisonous words plotting to incite Taiwan comrades to hate their compatriots on the motherland," an accompanying commentary by Xinhua said. "This reveals again that she is an extreme, incurable 'Taiwan independence' element."
China deeply distrusts Chen, who is to take office on May 20, because his Democratic Progressive Party favors formal independence. A former political prisoner, Lu was an outspoken supporter of Taiwan independence but has become more subdued in her criticism of Beijing to avoid provoking China.