China warns Taiwan ahead of Chen's inauguration

Days before Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian starts his second term, China slammed his independence leanings and warned that it would crush any steps in that direction "firmly and thoroughly at any cost".
But Beijing dangled the prospect of re-starting talks and deepening ties with rival Taiwan if Chen, or any other future leader of Taiwan, recognised that the island and the mainland were both parts of the same China.
Chen was re-elected in a hotly contested poll in March a day after being shot on the campaign trail in an apparent assassination attempt. His inauguration for a second four-year term is scheduled for May 20.
The Chinese statement, jointly issued by the Communist Party and the cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office, warned Taiwan not to play with fire.
"The Taiwan leaders have before them two roads: one is to pull back immediately from their dangerous lurch towards independence, recognising that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the one and same China and dedicating their efforts to closer cross-Straits relations," the statement said.
"The other is to keep following their separatist agenda to cut Taiwan from the rest of China and, in the end, meet their own destruction by playing with fire," it said.
Chen has been testing Beijing's patience with plans to hold a referendum on a new constitution in 2006 and adopt it in 2008. He says the new constitution is to deepen democracy in Taiwan, but China sees it as a formal declaration of statehood.
"If Taiwan leaders should move recklessly to provoke major incidents of 'Taiwan independence', the Chinese people will crush their schemes firmly and thoroughly at any cost," said the statement, issued by the Xinhua news agency.
The strongly worded statement, which said Chen broke promises and acted in bad faith during his first term, also held out some incentives for the Taiwanese leader to consider.
Recognising a "one China" policy, under which Taiwan and the mainland are part of a single China, and dropping independence and "separatist" activities could bring renewed negotiations and dramatically improve ties, it said.
"Cross-Straits relations can hold out a bright prospect of peace, stability and development" in several areas.