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China reserves right to take all measures to achieve reunification with Taiwan — document

It is reported that use of force would be the last resort taken under compelling circumstances

BEIJING, August 10. /TASS/. Beijing will make utmost efforts to achieve peaceful reunification with Taiwan but reserves the right to take all the necessary measures, according to a white paper titled The Taiwan Question and China's Reunification in the New Era, which was published by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council and the State Council Information Office on Wednesday.

"We are ready to create vast space for peaceful reunification but we will leave no room for separatist activities in any form," the document reads.

"We will work with the greatest sincerity and exert our utmost efforts to achieve peaceful reunification. But we will not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures. This is to guard against external interference and all separatist activities. In no way does it target our fellow Chinese in Taiwan. Use of force would be the last resort taken under compelling circumstances," the document adds.

The Chinese armed forces launched military exercises involving live firing in six areas around Taiwan the next day after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei.

Taiwan has been governed by its local administration since 1949 when the remaining Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) fled to the island after suffering a defeat in China’s civil war. Since then, Taiwan has preserved the flag and some other symbols of the Republic of China that had existed in mainland China before the Communists came to power. Beijing regards the island as one of its provinces.

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