China would use non-peaceful means and other necessary measures in the event that the "Taiwan independence" forces should act to cause the fact of Taiwan's secession from China, said a senior lawmaker in Beijing Tuesday.
  
According to the draft Anti-Secession Law, China would also use non-peaceful means should major incidents entailing Taiwan's secession from China occur, or should possibilities for a peaceful reunification be completely exhausted, said Wang Zhaoguo, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.
  
Under those circumstances, "the state shall employ non-peaceful means and other necessary measures to protect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Wang told NPC when he made explanations on the draft Anti-Secession Law.
  
The Taiwan question is one that is left over from China's civil war of the late 1904s. China has said resolving the Taiwan question and accomplishing China's complete reunification is one of the three historic tasks of the Communist Party of China and the country.
  
Over the years China has hoped to develop stronger relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits and promote a peaceful reunification of the motherland.
  
In recent years, however, the Taiwan authorities have intensified their "Taiwan independence" activities aimed at separating Taiwan from China. The secessionist activities of the "Taiwan independence" forces "gravely threaten China's sovereign and territorial integrity", Wang told NPC.
  
He stressed China would refrain from using non-peaceful means.
  
"Using non-peaceful means to stop secession in defense of our sovereignty and territorial integrity would be our last resort when all our efforts for a peaceful reunification should prove futile," Wang said.
  
He stressed that China has "consistently stood for reunifying the country through peaceful means...No one is more desirous of achieving a peaceful reunification than we are."
  
"So 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.
  
But Wang stressed no sovereign state can tolerate secession and every sovereign state has the right to use necessary means to defend its sovereign and territorial integrity.
  
He promised that China shall exert its utmost to protect Taiwan civilians and foreign nationals in Taiwan should non-peaceful means be used.
  
"The draft legislation clearly provides that in the event of employing and executing non-peaceful means and other necessary measures, the state shall exert its utmost to protect the lives, property and other legitimate rights and interests of Taiwan civilians and foreign nationals in Taiwan, and to minimize losses," he said.
  
"At the same time, the state shall protect the rights and interests of the Taiwan compatriots in other parts of China in accordance with law."

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2005)