A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday that the draft
Anti-Secession Law is "conducive to peace and stability across the
Taiwan Straits."
At a regular press conference, Liu Jianchao said the draft,
currently being deliberated at the National People's Congress (NPC)
annual session, is aimed at safeguarding the country's unity and
the region's peace and stability.
It is intended to oppose and check the secessionist activities
of "Taiwan independence" forces and preserve China's sovereignty
and territorial integrity, he said.
"As long as it is under the one-China principle, we understand
the wish of Taiwan's people to have proper friendly exchanges with
people of other countries," Liu said. The best way for this, he
said, is to "realize the country's peaceful reunification as soon
as possible."
Wang
Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, detailed
the draft Anti-Secession Law to the congress on Tuesday. NPC
deputies attending the session will vote to ratify it on March
14.
In response to reports that Australia had been warned not to use
its treaty with the US to confront China over the Taiwan question,
Liu said the Chinese government stuck to its view that bilateral
military alliances should be strictly confined to the two parties
concerned, calling on both countries to honor their commitments on
Taiwan.
Under a US-Australian defense treaty signed after World War II,
the two countries agreed to help each other in the event of an
attack from or conflict with a third country.
According to Liu, China's special envoy for the Korean Peninsula
yesterday headed for Washington to try to revitalize six-party
talks aimed at easing tension in the region.
He said the visit by Ning Fukui was part of China's ongoing
diplomatic effort to resume negotiations.
Liu did not reveal what message Ning, who accompanied Communist
Party of China envoy Wang Jiarui on his Pyongyang visit last month,
might deliver to the US government.
Last week Beijing urged Washington and Pyongyang to hold direct
bilateral talks under the framework of six-party talks in order to
restart negotiations as soon as possible.
Foreign Minister Li
Zhaoxing had a phone conversation yesterday morning with US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the six-party talks and the
Taiwan question, the second such communication within five
days.
Liu criticized recent comments by Japanese Foreign Minister
Nobutaka Machimura that China should improve what he labeled
anti-Japanese education, saying the comments were "totally
groundless."
"We're astonished and dissatisfied with the remarks," Liu
said.
Japanese militarists invaded China in the 1930s and 1940s, not
only causing "irrecoverable damage" to the Chinese people but also
bringing much suffering to the Japanese, Liu said.
The government always advocates "taking history as a mirror and
looking forward to the future" and educates its people in the
spirit of keeping friendship between the Chinese and Japanese
people generation after generation, he said, saying it is totally
groundless for the Japanese side to criticize China's history
education.
"On the contrary, the Japanese should correctly handle the
historical issue, so as to make positive efforts to enhance
friendship between the two peoples and improve bilateral ties," he
said.
(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily March 9, 2005)