March 8, 2005
In response to China’s legislation of the “Anti-Separation Law”, the Mainland Affairs Council of the Executive Yuan issues the following official statement:
Through the legislation of this law, the Chinese authorities deny the Republic of China its sovereignty and have unilaterally changed the status quo. It has already created tension in the region and justifies the concern of both the international community and the Taiwanese Government over China’s motives. This law exposes China’s intent to use military force to annex Taiwan and dominate the region. It has essentially written a blank check for its military to resort to military force against Taiwan. The Taiwanese Government strongly protests this disruption of peace in the East Asian region and stability in the Taiwan Strait, ignoring the Taiwanese people’s will and encroaching on the Taiwanese people’s freedom of choice through ill intentions and violent measures.
The current situation in the Taiwan Strait is that the Republic of China is a sovereign nation and both sides of the Strait have no jurisdiction over one another. The Taiwanese people cannot accept China’s ‘one country, two systems’ arrangement. The future of Taiwan requires the consensus of the twenty-three million Taiwanese people and the Chinese authorities must accept this fact.
In the past five years, the Taiwanese Government has made many efforts to improve cross-Strait relations. Concrete suggestions to maintain cross-strait peace and stability have been proposed in cross-Strait exchanges and dialogues, yet the Chinese authorities completely dismiss the Taiwanese Government’s continuous efforts to improve cross-Strait relations by formulating this law and creating barriers against further cross-Strait exchanges and resumption of dialogues. The Taiwanese Government would like to appeal to the international community again to challenge China’s hegemonic behavior by which it “says one thing yet does another’, and take concrete action to assist in safeguarding the present peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.