Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday that the nation’s new anti-secession law is aimed at strengthening ties with Taiwan, adding that China will never allow foreign interference in cross-strait issues.
Passed yesterday during the closing session of the National People’s Congress, the law is also designed to maintain peace and stability across the strait and is by no means “a war mobilization order,” Wen told at a news conference in Beijing.
China’s legislature adopted the anti-secession law by an overwhelming vote of 2,896 to zero.
After the vote, President Hu Jintao signed an order implementing the measure.
Wen said the 10-article law does not target Taiwan compatriots, but aims at opposing and checking Taiwan secessionist activities.
“It is not a law of war but one for the peaceful reunification of the motherland,” he said.
The Taiwan issue is an internal issue, one that should not be subject to “interference by any outside forces,” Wen told the more than 700 Chinese and foreign journalists at the press conference, which was broadcast live over national television, radio, and major news Websites.
The Taiwan issue was left unresolved from China’s civil war in the late 1940s. Wen stressed that although the mainland and Taiwan are yet to be reunified, that does not change the fact there is only one China.
Under the anti-secession measure, China would use “non-peaceful means and other necessary measures” to stop Taiwan’s secession should all efforts for a peaceful reunification prove futile.
The premier said China doesn’t want circumstances to reach that point.
“As long as there is a glimmer of hope for peaceful reunification, we will exert our utmost to make it happen rather than give it up,” he said.
The purpose of making such a law, Wen said, is “to demonstrate the common will and strong resolve” of the entire Chinese people and the 23 million Taiwan compatriots included to safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and never to allow Taiwan to secede from China.
Wen expressed the hope that all Taiwan compatriots will understand the purpose of the legislation, and that nations and people who uphold the one-China policy and wish peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait will understand and support it as well.
The law also states an aim to promote exchanges between people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and encourage economic cooperation and exchanges in education, science and technology, culture and other fields, said Wen.
It also stipulates that the rights and interests of Taiwan business people on the mainland will be protected, he said in response to a question raised by a Taiwanese reporter.
Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait will encourage business people from Taiwan and abroad to invest in the mainland.
But, he said, “only when the Taiwan independence secessionist forces are checked, can we maintain peace in the cross-strait region.”
He said China will develop cross-strait holiday flights into a regular practice as early as possible and will take measures to boost sales of farm produce from Taiwan to the mainland. China will also seek to resume the export of labor forces, allowing mainland fishermen to work in Taiwan as early as possible, the premier said.
“We’re also ready to take a series of preferential policies and convenient measures” to facilitate Taiwan business people on the mainland, he said.