Taipei, Oct. 18 (CNA) Taiwan officials on Monday rejected mainland Chinese President Jiang Zemin's remarks that China's unification will be achieved in the first half of the next century.
"How can there be a timetable for China's unification?" asked officials with the Mainland Affairs Council.
"Jiang's statement just serves to outline Beijing's hegemonic manner and that he totally doesn't understand the feeling of people on Taiwan (toward the unification issue)," the officials said.
Jiang said in an interview with The Times newspaper that by the middle of the next century, mainland China will resolve the question of Taiwan and accomplish the great cause of national reunification by adhering to the policy of "peaceful reunification" and "one country, two systems," after the successful return of Hong Kong and Macau.
Stressing that the Republic of China has never changed its goal of seeking national unification, the officials that there should be no timetable for such a goal.
Under Taiwan's Guidelines for National Unification, China's unification should be a gradual process and eventually be realized when the mainland becomes a free, democratic and prosperous society.
The officials said there is nothing new in Jiang's remarks, as he merely repeated Beijing's term "one nation, two systems," while still refusing to renounce using force against Taiwan and continuing to press for a halt to US arms sales to Taiwan.
But they warned that Jiang's "50-year theory" doesn't mean that mainand China will wait until 50 years from now to start to solve the so-called "Taiwan problem." On the contrary, they said, Beijing will not hesitate to try to annex Taiwan once it is capable of doing so.
However, the statement also reveals Jiang himself is very clear that cross-strait disputes could not be solved overnight and may be left for the next one or two generations of leaders on both sides, the officials said. (By Bear Lee)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
