Over the past nearly six years under the rule of Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian, the island has been suffering dirty politics, rampant corruption, ethnic disputes as well as economic mismanagement.

Amid growing dissatisfaction with his performance, Chen has fully exposed his nature as a selfish and immoral politician.

In order to deflect criticism over his political and economic failings, and consolidate his power, Chen chose to take desperate steps towards "Taiwan independence" while ignoring the public call for him to improve the economy and people's livelihoods.

He formally announced the termination of the "national unification council" and its guidelines yesterday, despite huge objection from within the island and the international community.

His move virtually dismantled the council, which has been running for 16 years, and the guidelines, drawn up 15 years ago, marking the first step towards his goal of achieving de jure independence for Taiwan.

In his 2000 inauguration speech, Chen made the "four no's plus one" pledge, which committed himself to not declaring independence, changing the "national title," incorporating the concept of "state-to-state" relations between Taiwan and the mainland in its "constitution," or promoting any referendum on changing the status quo in regard to independence.

He also vowed not to abandon the unification council and the guidelines.

The promises were renewed by Chen in 2004 when he was narrowly re-elected, which demonstrated that even he himself considered the commitment as a symbol for his refraining from pushing for "Taiwan independence."

Less than two years later, however, he broke his own promises and embarked on the dangerous scheme to wholly breach the "four no's plus one" commitment.

Scrapping the council and the guidelines is solely aimed at paving the way for his pursuit of Taiwan's de jure independence through the "constitutional re-engineering" project.

Since May 2004, Chen has been forging ahead with his secessionist timetable to write a new "constitution" for Taiwan through referendum in 2006 and enacting the document in 2008.

In the meantime, he has instructed his pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party to draft a new "constitution" that is open to any changes including that of "national title" and "national territory."

All these facts suggest Chen is bent on legitimizing "Taiwan independence" in the remaining two years of his second and final term despite the common aspiration across the Straits for peaceful and co-operative ties between both sides.

He is apparently attempting to pursue self-interest at the cost of the fundamental well-being of Taiwan people and cross-Straits peace and stability.

As the Taiwan Affairs Office has warned, his further escalation of secessionist activities will no doubt stoke tensions and trigger a serious crisis in the Straits. Chen's risky and provocative actions also threaten to destroy peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

By obstinately taking an extreme secessionist path to make Taiwan secede from China, Chen is making himself an enemy of the will of the mainstream in Taiwan and the inevitable trend of closer cross-Straits integration.

Some of Taiwan's opposition parties, including the Kuomintang and People First Party, along with people from all walks of life, have been condemning Chen's move and are reportedly planning measures to counter-attack his pro-independence conspiracy.

Chen is doomed to failure as the entire Chinese nation stands united to fight secessionist activities and safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.