Via Washington Post, from the Reuters today: “Armed conflict may be unavoidable if Taiwan keeps provoking China and pushing for independence, one of Beijing’s top Taiwan policy-makers said on Monday, but he spelt out a condition for reopening dialogue.
Wang Zaixi, vice minister of the mainland’s policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office, told Reuters in a rare interview that Taiwan was exploiting the mainland’s restraint and its focus on the economy and preparations for the 2008 Olympics. ”
About one year ago, CNN quoted Mr. Wang saying the same statement. Also in January 16, 2004, Mr. Wang met 400 overseas Chinese in New York, talked about Chinese government’s “bottom line” of the use of force on Taiwan.
For more background information on this issue, one can also see the paper on the Global Security.org.
