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Washington, March 2 (CNA) The latest Communist Chinese threat against Taiwan has to be taken seriously because Beijing is determined to make Taiwan part of the People's Republic of China by whatever means necessary, warned two veteran American Asia specialists on Thursday.

"The Chinese military build-up for the past three years has been amazingly tightly focused on preparing for military action against Taiwan," said Ross Munro, director of Asian studies at the Center for Security Studies in Washington, during a Voice of America radio interview.

"The Chinese strategic elite -- senior military officers and strategic thinkers -- are all saying that China must conquer and control Taiwan soon if it is to achieve its longer term strategic goal of dominating East Asia, like all the great Chinese dynasties did," he added.

He went on to say that there is an overwhelming consensus among the Communist leadership that one way or another, Taiwan must be recovered, with the only difference being over tactics, namely how fast to bring this about and with what risk.

He contrasted this growing consensus with the Chinese public's view, saying that "there is no empirical evidence that the Chinese people see this as an urgent issue, or any evidence that they feel very intensely that reunification must take place in the near future."

"In fact, both man-in-the-street interviews and a bit of public opinion polling in China point in the opposite direction -- that the ordinary man in the street does not care very much about this issue and almost has a live-and-let-live attitude," said Munro.

Meanwhile, William Kirby, director of the Asian Center at Harvard University, noted that the Chinese warning has to be taken seriously, because "it is a fundamental policy statement that indicates determination to make Taiwan part of the PRC by whatever means."

He said the Taiwanese are doing nothing during the lead up to their presidential election to arouse Communist Chinese fears, so he is disappointed Beijing has not responded to the moderate behavior of the three leading candidates, who have shown remarkable restraint in talking about cross-strait issues. (By Nelson Chung)