Beijing has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan if it formalises their 56-year separation with a declaration of independence and insists that its "One China" policy, which says Taiwan is part of its territory, is the only framework to address tense relations.

"'Taiwan independence' is a dead-end alley," Hu said during talks with a minor Taiwanese opposition party, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

"The One China principle must be maintained. China must not be separated. The Chinese nation must not be separated. We have to be clear on these major principles," he added.

Hu said that only by ending what Beijing refers to as pro-independence activists' "secessionist activities" could "peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits and a stable environment for economic and social development be maintained."

In a reference to China's 1937-45 occupation by Japanese forces, he said that working on economic development was the best way for both China and Taiwan to avoid such subjugation in the future.

"History and reality tell us that backwardness incurs beatings by others. Only through development can rejuvenation be realised," Hu said.

His comments came in talks with Yok Mu-ming, chairman of Taiwan's opposition New Party, currently touring China. Yok said his party would work with Chinese people to oppose "Taiwan independence" and work for peaceful reunification.

Yok is the third Taiwanese party leader to visit China since April, closely following the visits of the Kuomintang Party Chairman Lien Chan and People First Party Chairman James Soong.

Hu's comments echoed those of a senior official earlier Tuesday.

Wang Zaixi, vice minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said the war with Japan had taught Chinese people that "only a rich and powerful China can avoid being bullied by others."

"Escalating secessionist activities pose the biggest and most destructive threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits," Wang told an earlier forum with Yok's delegation.

"Only by opposing and curbing Taiwan's secession from China can we safeguard cross-Straits peace and stability," he said, according to the China Daily.

He urged people across the Taiwan Straits that separate Taiwan from mainland China "to launch an all-out fight against secessionist forces".

Wang also said China had to achieve reunification to become powerful, the report said.

"Only a reunited China can really become a powerful country in the world."

Yok's trip, like that of Lien and Soong, has received blanket coverage in China's state-run media.

Critics in Taiwan have criticised Beijing for reaching out to the opposition to isolate and put pressure on the Taiwanese government headed by President Chen Shui-bian from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.

China is opposed to Chen, who insists that Taiwan is a sovereign state. The two split in 1949, at the end of a civil war, but China still claims Taiwan as its territory.

Participants at the forum agreed that Chen's party had been promoting "independence" for the island since taking power in May 2000, the report said.

Chen has been pushing for "independence" through a "constitutional re-engineering project", they said.

Chen has called for talks with Beijing but China says dialogue can only reopen under its One China principle. Chen has categorically rejected the principle.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

Related Links
SpaceWar
Search SpaceWar
Subscribe To SpaceWar Express