Lin Mingmei has a lot to say when it comes to the newly-passed Anti-Secession Law.

She is most impressed by the simple fact that the law takes into consideration the long-term well-being of the people on the island, said the 75-year-old Taiwanese woman. Lin has worked for a pharmaceutical research institute in Beijing since 1953.

"It is doubtless that Taiwan is an integral part of China something my father, a politically senseless man who devoted his life to traditional Chinese medicine in Taiwan, told me since I was a child," Lin told China Daily.

However, due to Taiwan secessionists' distortion of history in recent years, some people misunderstand the mainland's policies towards cross-Straits relations, she said.

"The Anti-Secession Law sets out detailed measures to promote peace and stability in the Straits, such as encouraging and facilitating personnel, economic and cultural exchanges across the Straits. It will effectively oppose and check Taiwan's secession from China," Lin said.

Lin voiced her support for the adoption of the law at a forum held by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in Beijing yesterday.

Lin, who is the honorary director of the Pharmaceutical Institute of the Beijing Health Bureau, frequently flies to Taiwan to visit her relatives or promote exchanges between medical workers on both sides of the Straits.

Communication and exchanges are very important in allowing Taiwan people to know more about the mainland, she said.

Trade union representatives in the capital city also defended the new law at the forum, saying it is simply a legal document to maintain peace in the Straits and will contribute to national reunification.

Yang Feng, vice-chairman of the Trade Unions of the Beijing Haohua Energy Resource Co Ltd, described the Anti-Secession Law as "a law of peace, stability and rejuvenation."

The law stipulates the State encourages and facilitates all the activities that are conducive to peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, he said.

The Anti-Secession Law is conducive to national unity and cross-Straits peace, representatives of Hong Kong youth groups said yesterday.

"The law is restrained and flexible. Its objective is to ease tensions and maintain peace. That's why it does not set out a clear timetable for reunification," Kennedy Wong, chairman of the Hong Kong Taiwan Youth Exchange Promotion Association, said at a forum in Hong Kong.

He stressed that the provisions of the law make it clear that the Taiwan question is an internal issue of China that brooks no foreign intervention.

Wong, a lawyer by profession, said Hong Kong should actively support the bill and its implementation.

"We should promote increased dialogue and communication between the youths of Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland to push forward efforts towards reunification," he said, adding that the law provides a legal basis for enhanced cross-Straits relations and consensus.

Other youth group representatives also expressed support for the bill, adding that Hong Kong could play an important role in furthering the development of cross-Straits relations.

The young people of Hong Kong should promote more unity and communication across the Straits under the framework established by the Anti-Secession Law, and dispel tensions and misunderstandings to achieve peaceful reunification, participants agreed.

(China Daily March 18, 2005)