Countries back China for national sovereignty
By Xing Zhigang (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-03-15 02:11

The Anti-Secession Law will promote cross-Straits exchanges and act as a deterrent against secessionists, congress deputies and researchers said yesterday.

A girl caresses her sister as they had to say goodbye to their mainland mother before boarding a charter plane from Shanghai to Taipei during spring festival. [newsphoto]

They hailed the newly adopted law, which was passed yesterday at the end of the NPC annual session and won backing by countries including Russia, Pakistan and Belarus.

"Nobody is willing to see blood brothers across the Straits go to the battlefield some day," said deputy Hu Shixiang from the People's Liberation Army delegation.

"That's why we enacted it - to serve as a deterrent to prevent a small group of secessionist forces from taking bilateral ties to a crisis," he said.

At home, Yeh Hui-te, president of the Shanghai Taiwan Investors Association, said: "I understand and support this law, which is mainly intended to safeguard peaceful national reunification."

He added: "And I think the majority of the Taiwan business people here in Shanghai share my opinion."

"For Taiwanese investors on the mainland, Taiwan's secession from China means losing a huge market with some one quarter of the global population. This is the last thing we want to see," added Yeh, who has lived in Shanghai for more than a decade.

Lei Pang-chu, an NPC deputy from Macao, said no one is more desirous of achieving a peaceful reunification between the mainland and Taiwan than the Chinese people. "The law just acts as a legal document for us to make the greatest efforts to realize our goal," he said.

The 10-article law devotes a great deal of space to the promotion of a peaceful reunification between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.

It stipulates China would use "non-peaceful means and other necessary measures" only as a last resort.

"This embodies the consistent stance of the Chinese Government to achieve a peaceful reunification with the utmost sincerity," said Li Jiaquan, a senior researcher with the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He noted that it is of international convention for a country to oppose secessionist activities and safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity through legislation.

"Many countries in the world, including the United States, Canada, Russia and Britain, have enacted relevant, similar laws," he told China Daily.

"No sovereign state will tolerate any secessionist activities that sabotage national unity," he said.

Li stressed it is the "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces that pose a grave threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits as well as the Asia-Pacific region.

(China Daily 03/15/2005 page1)

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