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.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS