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 TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Brushing off threats from rival China, Taiwan's foreign minister said Friday a planned referendum on membership in the United Nations will go ahead because it reflects the "overwhelming sentiment" of the island's people.
James Huang spoke as China continued to lambast President Chen Shui-bian for pushing the referendum, calling him "an out and out plotter and saboteur who would not hesitate to sacrifice the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the Asia-Pacific."
Tension over the referendum has pushed relations between the longtime antagonists to their lowest level in more than a year, and raised concerns in Washington that the fragile status quo in the western Pacific — the enduring basis of American policy in the region — is at serious risk.
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