A spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State
Council said on Wednesday that the "anti-annexation law" that some
in Taiwan have promoted recently is a move for independence and is
resolutely opposed by all Chinese people.
Li Weiyi reaffirmed at a regular press conference that there is
only one China, and both the mainland and Taiwan belong to it. Its
sovereignty and territorial integrity cannot be altered, he
underscored.
The Anti-secession Law that China's top legislature, the
National People's Congress (NPC),
is enacting, aims to fight and curb any secessionist attempts in
Taiwan, Li said.
He went on to say "we will adhere to the basic principles of
'peaceful reunification' and 'one country, two systems,' and
continue to pursue peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and
effort."
"But we will never tolerate pro-independence activities and will
never allow anyone to separate Taiwan from China by any means," the
spokesperson said.
Li also expressed regret that Taiwan authorities have forbidden
Taiwan students studying on the Chinese mainland to take charter
flights back home during the
Spring Festival.
He said the mainland hopes that Taiwan students studying on the
mainland will be able to travel across the Straits during the
holiday.
"Since we are trying to provide easy access for Taiwan
compatriots, why not do it better?" Li said. "Besides, each side
will have six airlines operating 24 non-stop round-trip flights,
which are enough for the task."
Li said that Taiwan students studying on the mainland, who are
not economically independent, deserve more care and protection. "We
hope the Taiwan side will carefully consider the issue."
The major reason for the Taiwan authorities' decision was that
students attending university on the mainland are studying without
their approval.
Chinese mainland and Taiwan civil aviation circles reached a
consensus on January 15 about non-stop charter flights for Taiwan
business people during the Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New
Year.
Li said China's airlines have set up special working offices in
Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai, the three mainland destinations
involved.
According to Li, the successful arrangement for charter flights
during the coming festival does not mean the resumption of talks
across the Taiwan Straits.
He said that the arrangement was only a practical one to meet
the needs of Taiwan business people who work on the Chinese
mainland and want to spend the holiday at home.
There was no ready-made model to follow during future festivals,
he added.
"We will consider some practical arrangements in line with the
interests of the people across the Taiwan Straits," Li said.
It depended on the demand from Taiwan compatriots whether
similar charter flights would be launched over future festivals or
whether the mainland would promote charter freight flights across
the Straits, he said.
In 2003, Taiwanese civil aviation airplanes were allowed to fly
to the mainland for the first time since 1949. However, due to
restrictions from the Taiwan authorities, the flights had to make
stopovers in Hong Kong or Macao on their way to Shanghai or
returning trips, and no airlines from the mainland were
involved.
Li said the situation of cross-Straits relations remained
serious, though non-governmental exchanges had continued to develop
last year.
According to Li, last year, the Taiwan authorities further
intensified their pro-independence activities.
"The Taiwan authorities twisted the will of the Taiwan people,
incited hostile sentiments among them to the mainland, did their
utmost to challenge the fact that the mainland and Taiwan belong to
one China, and continued pro-independence activities by pushing
ahead with so-called 'constitutional reform' that had brought the
cross-Straits relationship to a dangerous edge," Li said.
Provocative moves by the Taiwan authorities posed a severe
threat to peace and stability across the Straits and in the
Asia-Pacific region as a whole, aroused resolute opposition among
the 1.3 billion Chinese people and Taiwan compatriots, and were
strongly blamed by an increasing number of countries all over the
world, said the spokesperson.
Chen Shui-bian formulated a new term of "constitutional reform"
to replace the former term of "establishing a new Taiwan
constitution" and promised that it would not touch upon the issues
of territory, sovereignty and reunification after he started his
second tenure last May. But in fact he had been attempting to
legitimatize independence through it.
Since last September, particularly during the election, Chen
announced a series of pro-independence policies, covering almost
all major aspects of changing Taiwan's status. He had been making
preparations for independence in a planned way and through his
attempt to revise the "law on referendum" and promote
"rectification" of Taiwan's name and "desinification" in political,
cultural and other areas.
Li stressed that currently it is the urgent task for compatriots
on both sides of the Taiwan Straits to stop pro-independence
activities and safeguard peace and stability.
He said the mainland will continue to promote economic and
cultural exchanges across the Straits and push forward the three
"direct links" so as to realize the resumption of cross-Straits
dialogue and negotiation on the basis of the one-China principle at
an early date.
Last year, he said, the mainland received 3.686 million visitors
from Taiwan, a year-on-year increase of 34.9 percent; and mainland
residents paid 145,000 visits to Taiwan, up 14.2 percent.
Customs statistics also showed that in 2004 indirect trade
volume across the Taiwan Straits for the first time exceeded US$70
billion, up 34.2 percent on 2003, while contractual investment in
the mainland by Taiwan business people totaled US$9.306 billion, up
8.74 percent, Li said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2005)