Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) will consider a proposal to introduce legislation mandating eventual unification with Taiwan, the semi-official China News Service said in a report yesterday.
The adoption of such a law, Chinese analysts said, would legally bind Chinese leaders to their pledge to order the 2.5-million-strong People's Liberation Army to attack the self-ruled, democratic nation if it formally declares statehood.
In a meeting with ethnic Chinese living in England, Wen heard a proposal from 76-year-old Shan Sheng that China's parliament should draft and adopt a unification law to prevent Taiwan from edging towards independence, the China News Service said.
"Your view on unification of the motherland is very important, very important. We will seriously consider it," Wen was quoted as saying.
Unification "is more important than our lives", Wen told Chinese embassy staff in London on Sunday. He did not repeat China's longstanding threat to use force against the nation of 23 million people.
"I deeply believe that one day Taiwan will return to the embrace of the motherland. This is a historical inevitability that cannot be blocked by any force," Wen said. He did not elaborate.
Beijing has warned of war if President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen, who is due to start his second four-year term on May 20, has been testing Beijing's patience with plans to hold a referendum on a new constitution in 2006 and adopt it in 2008.
Chen says the new constitution is aimed at deepening democracy in Taiwan. Beijing sees it as a formal declaration of statehood.
The law, analysts said, was necessary in the face of growing calls for Taiwan's independence.
"It is something we must face and resolve," said Zhu Xianlong (
"The unification law will define what is Taiwan's independence and specify corresponding measures," he said. "It will be legally binding. The use of force will be an important but last resort."
China was opposed to any plans by member nations of the World Health Organization (WHO) to invite Taiwan to a WHO conference as an observer, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (劉建超) as saying.
The meeting of the WHO's decision-making body is to be held in Geneva from May 17 to May 22.
To underscore China's claim of sovereignty, Beijing had invited health experts from Taiwan to attend the WHO conference as part of the Chinese delegation, but Taiwan did not respond, Liu said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
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