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Nothing to worry, says Chen

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Dec. 10. Taiwan today appeared to have not yet come to terms with the U.S. President, George W. Bush's comment that he would "oppose any uniltateral decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo'' and that he was opposed to Taipie's "comments and actions'' that indicated moves towards unilateral decisions aimed at altering the realities. The Taiwanese President, Chen Shui-bian, said in Taipei today that his plans to hold a "defensive referendum'' in March next year were not aimed at changing the status quo.

Hoping to remain on the right side of the U.S., Mr. Chen said that the idea was only "to free our people (the Taiwanese) from fear'' regarding China.

The referendum is to determine the opinion of territory on the perceived military threat from China. The topic is whether the Taiwanese would like China to remove the missiles `directed' against the territory and to renounce the use of force in settling the basic Taiwan issue.

Prior to Mr. Bush's comments, Mr. Chen had asked the Taiwanese people to `relax' saying he would `handle' the issue in his interactions with the U.S. and that "everything is fine''.

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