In the run-up to its heated presidential election and controversial referendum campaign in March, Taiwan dispatched in mid-January delegations to key countries in Europe and elsewhere to explain and reassure an anxious international community that the issues under debate were not meant to provoke a graver crisis in relations with neighbouring mainland China.

Speaking in Brussels, the head of the delegation Professor Chang Hsu-Cheng, who is a member of the legislative Yuan from the ruling Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) repeatedly emphasised that the referendum was “defensive,” “conservative” and in favour of the status quo regarding relations with the Peoples Republic of China. He and other members of the delegation spoke to a small group at a briefing at the European Institute for Asian Studies in Brussels.

Professor Chang Hsu-Cheng

While the delegation to Europe visited Germany, France, Belgium, the EU Institutions and the UK in mid-January, a similar visit to its main ally in the US was postponed following the controversy that arose between the US and Taiwan over the announcement of the referendum campaign in December 2003.

Even in Europe, the four-man delegation seemed to struggle to overcome some scepticism about the referendum scheduled to coincide with the March 20 presidential vote to ask the public about the deployment of short-range nuclear missiles by the Government in Beijing. The concerns in Europe were more muted than in the US, where President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed their fears that the referendum issue might be provocative. These official American comments appeared to moderate the strong US declarations in support of Taiwan and came on the occasion of a high-profile visit to the US by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

The proposed referendum has been controversial in Taiwan and elsewhere before and after the decision to conduct the poll. The issue was hotly debated in the Parliament, with the opposition strongly against the holding of a referendum on constitutional changes, on questions related to independence and even on the missile and security. Even when a compromise was adopted, many in Taiwan and in the international community opposed the approach. Polls conducted in Taiwan indicated backers and opponent of the vote roughly split with 37%-36% and the remainder undecided.

Analysts after the actual announcement of the referendum questions were released on January 15 were quoted as indicating that they felt President Chen had watered down the tone of the language in a way as to sooth concerns in the US and elsewhere. The referendum questions will ask voters to decide Taiwan should buy more anti-missile equipment if China continues to pose a military threat. They will also be asked whether the government should resume talks with China on a "peace and stability" framework.

Numerous observers inside and outside Taiwan have noted the sometimes ambiguous message deliver by President Chen. In December 2003, for example, he announced he continued to live by his inaugural pledge of the “five nos” basically meaning no change in the status quo, but added that if China should launch a missile as it did in 1996 he would rescind that pledge. But statements from Beijing after the announcement indicated continued opposition to any referendum no matter how it was worded.