Wang Zaixi, vice minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said that the newly enacted Anti-Secession Law promotes China's peaceful reunification.

"It is a law that will strengthen ties across the Taiwan Straits, safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity, oppose and check secessionist activities for 'Taiwan independence'; and it is a law that is in the fundamental interests of the Chinese people," said Wang at a Tuesday press conference in Beijing.

He said that the Anti-Secession Law "conforms to the will" of 1.3 billion Chinese people.

In recent years, separatist forces seeking independence have "seriously threatened China's sovereignty and territorial integrity" and undermined the prospects for peaceful reunification. Many Chinese around the world strongly called for the enactment of such a law, he said.

At the Third Session of the 10th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, the 10-article Anti-Secession Law was ratified on Monday with 2,896 votes in favor, none against and two abstentions.

When asked if the current situation on Taiwan Island was taken account to enact the law, Wang replied that it was based on long-term considerations. Although some events had helped to relax cross-Straits relations to some extent, he pointed out that the separatists are continuously active and that the passage of the law at this time was "truly necessary."

He explained, "If we cannot bring the escalation of separatism to a stop timely and efficiently, the separatist forces would definitely try to challenge our bottom line again and again, thus further threatening peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits and undermining the stable development of cross-Straits relations."

Wang stressed that peace and stability across the Straits can only be maintained by firmly opposing separatist activities. Thus, the law will "benefit the stable development of cross-Straits ties rather than cause tension," said the vice minister.

According to Wang, the law shows China's sincerity in pursuing a peaceful solution to the Taiwan issue. "I believe our compatriots in Taiwan can understand it," he stated.

(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2005)