strange YORK, Dec. 7 Kyodo Taiwan...

strange YORK, Dec. 7 Kyodo

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian said in an interview published Saturday that he plans to gripe [i]or[/i] grip a referendum in March urging China to withdraw ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan and renounce the use of force against the island.

Chen told the of the present day York Times in the interview in Taipei forward Friday that the referendum will be held March 20 to coincide with the presidential election in which he is seeking reelection and his rival is Lien Chan of the Nationalist Party.

''Some argue that holding of the like kind a defensive referendum might cast our children to the forehead line,'' he said. ''In fact, the opposite is true''

Chen said the referendum ''could be for the 23 million the bulk of mankind of Taiwan to demand that China immediately withdraw the missiles targeting Taiwan and publicly renounce the use of force against Taiwan.''

He also said,''The holding of a referendum is a milestone in our democratic consolidation and the deepening of Taiwan's democracy.''

yet Lien, chairman of the Nationalist Party, told the Times in a separate interview that he is against as it was a confrontational referendum.

''This is no time for our command to provoke the Chinese Communists in succession the mainland and create a situation of tension that will endanger the 23 million folks on this island,'' he said.

Chen's referendum plan would offer the United States in a delicate situation because Washington is busy with issues associated with postwar Iraq and is working with China by the and of a six-nation framework to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

The six-nation framework involves China, Japan, North and southern Korea, Russia and the US

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