TAIWAN UNFAZED BY CHINA GAMES\Life goes on at national university.

Byline: Edward A. Gargan The New York Times

With less than 48 hours remaining before China was set to begin a new round of live-fire war games barely a dozen miles from Taiwan-controlled islets, Ho Chi-hung bent over his slender single-stringed erhu to find a first, single note.

Then, eerily, whispers of a classical melody, "Spirit of the Sword," floated from the delicate instrument, spilling into an atrium where it jostled with strains from violins, a flute and a brass sextet struggling with Gustav Holst's Second Suite in F.

In the yawning hall of National Taiwan University's student center, the melange of musical cultures swirled in a cacophonous clutter, Chinese blending with Western, a jazz riff edging past dance music from a studio at the end of a corridor.

And here, at Taiwan's most prestigious university, there were few worries or thoughts of China's military might and intimidation. Indeed, there were few thoughts of China.

"I'm not really interested in politics," admitted Ho, 20, a medical student. "I've been to China, to Beijing and Shanghai. I think Taiwan should be a nation. There's no way to unify at the moment. Anyway, a system like China's with a single party controlling everything can't last too long."

With the approach of new Chinese war games Monday, exercises that will straddle Taiwan's first direct presidential election Saturday and which Beijing has said are designed to banish thoughts of independence from Taiwan's mind, many students had to be reminded that the might of China's 3 million-strong army was virtually at the doorstep.

"Oh, at first I was a little nervous," said Li Hsing-ying, a first-year student of literature, sitting in a school cafeteria. "We would be facing big changes if we lost our country. I think Taiwan is independent of China. We are an independent country. There's no reason to unify with China."

Since March 8, China has staged a series of missile tests and war games near Taiwan's coast intended, according to Chinese officials, to cow Taiwan voters in the weeks leading to the island's first presidential election. Since last June, when Taiwan's president, Lee Teng-hui, visited the United States, Beijing has steadily increased its bellicose statements toward this island, with China's foreign minister, Qian Qichen, warning of a "real disaster" if Taiwan moves toward independence.

Since the first missile landed just north of the Taiwanese port of Keelung, China has vilified Lee, accusing him of harboring desires for independence and urging Taiwan's voters to reject him in the voting booth. Instead, Lee's fortunes have surged, according to polls here.