Beijing is preparing for all eventualities as Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian
has intensified his secessionist push for the island's "de jure independence,"
Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday.
He accused Chen of seriously damaging cross-Straits
peace and stability with his February 27 decision to scrap a government body
that sought eventual unification with the mainland.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
holds his watch as he extends his news conference for two more questions
after the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in
China's capital Beijing March 14,
2006. [Reuters] |
Chen's actions are "highly risky, dangerous and deceptive," Wen told a press
conference following the end of the annual session of the National People's
Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.
"We should guard against the escalated secessionist moves to push forward the
'constitutional re-engineering' project aimed at 'de jure independence'," the
premier said.
"We are keeping a close watch on the development and preparing to deal with
any possible consequences."
He said the mainland "will never waver in its opposition to secessionist
activities and will by no means allow Taiwan to secede from the motherland."
Wen also offered to hold talks with Chen's ruling Democratic Progressive
Party as long as it drops its pro-independence platform.
The premier reiterated that Beijing is willing to talk to any individual or
political party from the island under the one-China principle, which maintains
that both Taiwan and the mainland belong to one and the same China.
At the two-hour nationally-televised press conference, Wen also talked about
major topics ranging from the rural poor, Internet freedom, education and
foreign relations to environmental protection.
As a sign of the top Chinese leadership's commitment to reform and
opening-up, Wen pledged to unswervingly press ahead with the country's
decades-old reform agenda.
"Although there will be difficulties in the way ahead,
we cannot stop. Back-pedalling is not a way out," he said.