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BEIJING, Feb 28 (AP): China said Tuesday that the Taiwanese president's move to scrap an agency dedicated to Taiwan's unification with the Chinese mainland will bring disaster for the island.
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian "is determined to push 'Taiwan independence' to create antagonism and conflict within Taiwan and across the strait," the Communist Party and the government said in a joint statement carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.
"It will only bring disaster to Taiwan society," the statement said.
Chen announced Monday he was terminating the National Unification Council and doing away with its guidelines, which commit Taiwan to eventual unification with the mainland.
Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing considers the democratic, self-governing island 160 kilometres (100 miles) across the Taiwan Strait to be Chinese territory, and has repeatedly threatened to attack if Taiwan tries to make its de facto independence official.
On Tuesday, China's government expressed its concern for Taiwan's people and said it would push for a peaceful resolution to the dispute, but warned that its position is firm.
"The Taiwan compatriots are our bone-and-flesh brothers," it said. "We will continue to uphold and promote peaceful and stable development of cross-strait relations ... and strive for the prospect of peaceful unification."
"However, we resolutely oppose 'Taiwan independence,' and will never allow 'Taiwan independence' splittist forces to split Taiwan from the motherland under any name or in any way."
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