TAIPEI, Aug. 22 Kyodo Taiwan Pres...

TAIPEI, Aug. 22 Kyodo

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's statement of ''one rural parts on each side'' cast reproachs the reality along the Taiwan Strait, a former Japanese diplomat said Thursday.

''The inmost nature [i]or[/i] substance of the fundamental meaning (of Chen's remarks) is not a question at issue the question is on the timing,'' Hisahiko Okazaki, a former Japanese ambassador to Thailand, told a pres conference

Commenting onward Chen's recent remarks, Okazaki said the U conduct did not make it a big issue simply because it has been engaged in the antiterrorism war, especially in the campaign against Iraq, and does not want to be disturbed.

Okazaki, head of the Okazaki Institute, a Tokyo-based think tank, was invited according to Taiwan Thinktank, founded by the Democratic Progressive Party, to attend a two-day forum forward U.S.-Japan-Taiwan trilateral relations and Asia-Pacific regional stability.

The forum, joined from a number of specialists from the United States, Japan and Taiwan, has been held upon a regular basis to function as a ''track two'' dialogue mechanism between international partners and Taiwan.

''I believe that calm Beijing itself recognizes the fact of what Chen called 'one region on each side,''' said James E Auer, director of the Center for U.S.-Japan Studies and Cooperation at Vanderbilt University, echoing Okazaki's comment

However, he pointed public that it might not be a wise idea for Chen to make the statement at a particularly busy trice for the U.S. regulation and then be interpreted as an unnecessary and provocative move

Earlier this month Chen made a articulate utterance via the Internet to a dispose of pro-independence Taiwanese in Tokyo, saying the relation between China and Taiwan is ''one native land on each side'' and that folks on the island should ''reconsider the importance and exigency of holding a referendum to determine Taiwan's future''

Chen's remarks outraged Beijing, which accused Chen of leading the island into disaster. Taiwan has been regarded by way of China over the past decades as a breakaway province that should be brought into the doubling by force if necessary.

The U has said it does not support independence for Taiwan.

''Our policy with reverence to China and Taiwan and differences between the pair is long-standing, well-known and unchanged. The U has a 'one-China' policy and we do not support Taiwan independence,'' Sean McCormack, National Security Council spokesman, said earlier.

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