After declaring in a speech that Taiwan and China were separate countries and endorsing holding national referendums on issues of national sovereignty (which goes against a promise he made in his inaugural speech), Chen Shui-bian now claims he was only calling for equal or parallel sovereignty for Taiwan and China. Why did he backtrack? Probably because his speech angered many Taiwanese business leaders involved in mainland businesses, and as the New York Times puts it: "the United States has conspicuously refrained from publicly supporting President Chen in this dispute". Apparently Chen thought there was strong US support for Taiwanese independence, probably because as the Economist notes, President George Bush last year said that America would �do whatever it takes� to help defend Taiwan, and since then has approved the sale to Taiwan of a long list of imposing weaponry. Unfortunately, since then China has also become an important American partner in the war against terrorism.

I suspect Chen's message was meant only for his own radical supporters. According to the NYT:

The president used a complex Taiwanese term for country in his speech that suggested China and Taiwan were fundamentally different groupings. Chen Ming-tong, the vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, the ministry here that handles relations with the mainland, said today that there was still no consensus on how to translate the speech on Saturday into mandarin, much less into English.

This sounds like bullshit to me. Or maybe he hoped he could say one thing to his supporters while having China & the US understand it in another way.