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NPC deputies applaud after the
Anti-Secession Law is adopted during the closing of the Third Session of
the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) of China in the Great Hall of
the People in Beijing March 14, 2005. (Xinhua Photo) |
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BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhuanet) -- China's parliament,
the National People's Congress (NPC), ratified the Anti-Secession Law with an
overwhelming vote of 2,896 to nil here Monday, setting a legal framework to
prevent Taiwan's secession from China and to promote peaceful national
reunification.
President Hu Jintao signed a presidential order for the
immediate promulgation of the law at Monday's session. The law became
effective upon promulgation.
The law, which consists of ten articles, provides for
the legislative purpose and scope of application of the legislation, the nature
of the Taiwan issue, achieving national reunification through peaceful means,
and taking non-peaceful means to stop Taiwan's secession from China by the
"Taiwan independence" secessionist forces.
NPC deputies burst into a storm of applause as the
result of the vote was announced, which was broadcast live through national
television, radio and major news websites.
Top legislator Wu Bangguo hailed the high support
rate of NPC deputies for the law demonstrated the "common will and strong
resolve" of the entire Chinese people.
"The Anti-Secession Law, adopted with such a high
support rate from NPC members, has legalized the policy guideline of the central
authorities on Taiwan, and given full expression to China's consistent position
of doing the utmost with maximum sincerity for a peaceful reunification," said
Wu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, after the law was ratified.
He said the adoption of the law also demonstrated the
"common will and strong resolve" of the entire Chinese people to
safeguardChina's sovereignty and territorial integrity and never to allow the
"Taiwan independence" forces to make Taiwan secede from China under any name or
by any means.
"The promulgation and implementation of the law will
have a major practical and far-reaching historical impact on the development of
cross-Straits relations, peaceful reunification of the motherland, and opposing
and checking Taiwan's secession from China by secessionists in the name of
'Taiwan independence'," Wu said.
It is also important for China's efforts to maintain
peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, and to safeguard its sovereignty and
territorial integrity as well as the fundamental interests of the Chinese
nation, said Wu.
China has said the law is by no means a so-called
"law on the use of force against Taiwan" or a so-called "war mobilization
order." China would only use "non-peaceful means" to stop Taiwan'ssecession
should all efforts for a peaceful reunification prove futile, Wang Zhaoguo,
vice-chairman of the NPC Standing Committee,told parliament last week.
The Taiwan issue is one left over from China's civil
war of thelate 1940s. China has said that resolution of the Taiwan issue
andaccomplishment of China's complete reunification is one of the three historic
tasks of the Communist Party of China and the country.
Over the years, China has made great efforts in a
hope to develop closer relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits and
promote a peaceful reunification of the motherland.
However, the Taiwan authorities have intensified
their "Taiwan independence" activities aimed at making Taiwan secede from
China.Thus the secessionist activities of the "Taiwan independence" forces pose
a "grave" threat to China's sovereign and territorial integrity.
China has said resolving the Taiwan question is
entirely an internal affair, which "subjects to no interference by any
outsideforces."
Beijing has rejected the recent remarks by the United
States, which described the law as "unhelpful" towards relations across the
Taiwan Straits.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan last week called
the US remarks "irresponsible" and said China "demands" that the United States
abide by norms governing international relations, understand and support China's
law-making actions and not do anything that will "foster 'Taiwan independence'
secessionist activities" and harm China-US relations.
"The United States should safeguard peace and
stability in the Taiwan Straits region and the healthy development of China-US
relations through actual practice," Kong said.
Residents in Taiwan interviewed by Xinhua called the
law "mild and rational" and hoped the law could "promote the development of
cross-Straits relations by legal means."
"I think this law will help create new opportunities
for the development of cross-Straits relations," said Chen Yuchun, director of
the Graduate School of American Studies of the Taiwan-based Chinese Culture
University.
Learning some major points of the Anti-Secession Law,
Jyh-huei Her, chairman of the Taiwan-based Cross-Strait Economic & Trade
Association, said the proposed law embodies the "goodwill of the mainland."
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