ROUNDUP - Chinese premier warns Taiwan against formal independence

Mar 16, 2007, 12:51 GMT

Beijing - Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday said China will not tolerate moves towards formal independence for Taiwan, reiterating Beijing's position that the island is an 'inalienable part of Chinese territory.'

'We are strongly opposed to any secessionist activities aimed at achieving Taiwan independence,' Wen told reporters at the end of an annual session of the National People's Congress, China's nominal parliament.

Wen said Beijing was 'closely watching the secessionist activities' in Taiwan, adding that 2007 is a 'crucial year' for relations between the island and mainland China.

China will continue to develop cross-Strait relations, with 'peace and development' as the ultimate goal, he said.

It will promote the three 'direct links' through postal, trade and transportation services, and will continue to facilitate charter passenger flights and cargo flights between the two sides, Wen said.

China was 'looking forward' to Taiwan allowing mainland tourists to visit the island in the future, he said.

He said two-way trade value between China and Taiwan reached 100 billion dollars last year, with Taiwan's exports to China hitting 80 billion dollars.

Wen also said his trip next month to Japan would be an 'ice-thawing' event, after an 'ice-breaking' visit to China last October by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe brought an end to five years of diplomatic friction between China and Japan.

In Taipei, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan's top China policy planning body, hit out at Wen, saying while the 'Chinese leader is playing lip service over peace and development across the Taiwan Strait, China is actively expanding its military to prepare to attack Taiwan.'

'China has adopted the 'anti-secession law' to give its military the power to attack Taiwan, which would only escalate the tensions in the Taiwan Strait,' MAC said in a statement in response to Wen's comments.

It said if China really wants to improve cross-strait relations, it should immediately give up its ambition to invade Taiwan, abolish its 'anti-secession law', and stop meddling in internal affairs and diplomatic activities of the island.

Two weeks ago, China uttered a veiled military threat and condemned the efforts of Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian to promote Taiwanese independence as a 'dangerous step.'

Reacting to Chen's statement that Taiwan must seek independence, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing invoked China's 'anti-secession law' and said Chen would not succeed in any bid for formal independence.

The controversial law allows 'non-peaceful means' against Taiwan if the island seeks independence or if the possibility of 'peaceful reunification' is exhausted.

Chen had said that Taiwan was already a sovereign state separate from the People's Republic of China, and that independence was a 'common dream' of Taiwan's people.

Since October, he has launched a campaign to delete the words China and Chinese from enterprise names. He has also vowed to introduce a new constitution for Taiwan before he steps down in 2008 after serving two four-year terms.