"Clearly there is still a matter of trust and acertain degree of animosity to overcome," Chensaid.

According to Chen, it will be necessary forboth sides to negotiate on equal footing.Otherwise, Chen said, tensions will only fuel apush for Taiwanese independence.

The Taiwanese government has firmly held itsstance that Taiwan will reunify with China oncethe Republic has ended communism.

"We are opposed to communist rule but we arenot opposed to eventual reunification," said Chen.

Despite this commitment to reunification, fearsremain that China may use force unprovoked.

"We cannot control the Communists," Chen said."I only hope that they are sensible. Sometimesthey are not."

Though hopeful for eventual reunification,Taiwan is prepared for the any possibility.

"We have spent a large budget for credibledefense," Chen warned. "The cream of their economywill be destroyed. That will push China back intothe 19th century while the rest of the world movesforward to the 21st."

Certainly, such confrontation will hurt theTaiwanese economy as well, he said.

But Chen said, "[Taiwan is] compelled by theinterest of national survival to put nationalsecurity ahead of commercial attentions."

After his speech, several Harvard studentsquestioned the Taiwanese government's proreunification position.

In response to a question of when thedemocratic state will call for a vote onreunification, Chen replied, "In a democracy youact according to the constitution. Theconstitution says that it is the constitution ofthe Republic of China."

Chen's assertion that Taiwanese are notethnically different from Chinese was also aposition incongruous with the feelings of some inthe audience.

"He spoke of Taiwan as not being an ethnicgroup [independent from China] but I think themajority of the Taiwanese would disagree," saidGeorge S. Han '00, who is the education andcultural chair of the Taiwanese Cultural Society