Lee warns Taiwan against losing competitiveness
(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-21 16:01
TAIPEI - Singapore's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew has warned that Taiwan
could lose its international competitiveness unless it comes up with a way to
work closer with the mainland, a news magazine reported on Wednesday.
Lee said he personally delivered the warning to the Taiwanese leader years
ago, Taiwan's Commonwealth magazine reported.
The former prime minister,
who now holds the Cabinet title of minister mentor, said that a lot of pressure
is on Taiwanese "president" Chen Shui-bian to improve relations with the
mainland.
"If (Chen) takes the wrong direction, he could bring a tragedy
to himself ... and Taiwan would have to pay a price," he said in the interview
last week in Singapore.
Lee, prime minister of the city state until
1990, had maintained friendly ties with Chen when the former Taiwanese
opposition leader took power in 2000.
But relations between them
strained after the independence-leaning Chen took a harder line on the mainland.
Lee has long urged Taiwan to have direct air links with the mainland and
give up any attempts to declare formal independence - a move would spark a
war.
"China and India will become the first and second largest economies
in the world toward the end of the 21st century," Lee said in the magazine that
hit newsstand on Wednesday.
"By 2050, the center of the world will
definitely move to the Pacific, and it will be a situation beneficial to Taiwan
and to Singapore," he added.
"But if Taiwan doesn't make changes,
doesn't face the reality of the competition from the mainland, Taiwan would lose
in this race," Lee warned.
Lee noted Taiwan cannot decide on its future
unilaterally but must heed the attitudes of Washington and Beijing. The U.S.
does not support Taiwanese independence for fear it could trigger a conflict
that might involve American troops.
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