President says Taiwan to keep "status quo of independence".

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has responded to the meeting between US President Bush and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, saying that he is determined to safeguard Taiwan's status quo of independence from any changes. He said that Taiwan is an independent sovereign state dedicated to consolidating democracy, and that China shouldn't oppose or distort Taiwan's democratic reform. He called on the international community not to take China's military threat as a matter of course, and not to regard Taiwan's democratic reform as provocation. The following is the text of a report by Wu Yu-wen entitled: "Bush-Wen meeting/Bian: No intention to change Taiwan's status quo, but will not allow status quo to be changed", published by Taipei ET Today web site on 10 December

President Chen gave his formal response to the Bush-Wen meeting in the morning of 10 December. He reiterated that Taiwan is an independent sovereign state and that he, as president, must keep Taiwan's status quo of independence from being changed, and urged the international community not to see China's …