Taiwan will return to the Chinese fold in the first half of the next century, China's President Jiang Zemin (
"By the middle of next century ... we will resolve the question of Taiwan and accomplish the great cause of national reunification by adhering to the policy of `peaceful reunification' and `one country, two systems,' after the successful return of Hong Kong and Macau," said Jiang.
Taiwan officials, however, were quick to reject Jiang's comments. "How can there be a timetable for China's unification?" asked officials with the Mainland Affairs Council.
"Jiang's statement just serves to outline Beijing's hegemonic manner and that he totally doesn't understand the feeling of people on Taiwan [toward the unification issue]," the officials said.
But they warned that Jiang's "50-year theory" doesn't mean that mainand China will wait until 50 years from now to start to solve the so-called "Taiwan problem." On the contrary, they said, Beijing will not hesitate to try to annex Taiwan once it is capable of doing so.
Today Jiang embarks on the first trip to Britain by a Chinese president.
In 1997 Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule under the "one country, two systems" scheme, which allowed the territory to maintain its free-wheeling capitalist lifestyle while under communist Beijing rule.
The tiny Portuguese enclave of Macau will return to Chinese rule in a similar fashion in December.
Commenting on steps to improve Sino-US relations, harmed by the NATO bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade in May, Jiang said the US should stop its arms sales to Taiwan and "refrain from creating new obstacles on the question of Taiwan and other matters, as they are detrimental to the improvement of China-US relations".
Also, the US and Japan have launched a defense cooperation project in the anti-ballistic missile field, which China is insisting must not involve Taiwan.
China has succeeded in "maintaining stability and prosperity in Hong Kong," Jiang said, adding that the examples of Hong Kong and Macau "will serve as a significant example in our efforts ultimately to resolve the question of Taiwan and achieve complete reunification.
"Different from the questions of Hong Kong and Macau, the question of Taiwan is a result of the civil war in China and is all-in-all China's internal affair," he told the paper.
"Our offer for the settlement of the Taiwan question is even more generous than those for Hong Kong and Macau," Jiang added.
"We do not undertake to renounce the use of force but this is by no means directed at our compatriots in Taiwan. It is directed at those foreign forces trying to interfere in China's reunification."
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