China authorizes attack on Taiwan

BEIJING -- China unveiled a law Tuesday authorizing an attack if Taiwan moves toward formal independence, increasing pressure on the self-ruled island while warning other countries not to interfere. Taiwan denounced the legislation as a "blank check to invade" and announced war games aimed at repelling an attack.\nThe proposed anti-secession law, read for the first time before the ceremonial National People's Congress, doesn't specify what actions might invite a Chinese attack.\n"If possibilities for a peaceful reunification should be completely exhausted, the state shall employ nonpeaceful means and other necessary measures to protect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Wang Zhaoguo, deputy chairman of the congress' Standing Committee, told the nearly 3,000 members gathered in the Great Hall of the People.\nBeijing claims Taiwan, which has been split from China since 1949, as part of its territory. The communist mainland repeatedly has threatened to invade if Taiwan tries to make its independence permanent, and the new law doesn't impose any new conditions or make new threats. It lays out for the first time legal requirements for military action.\nTaiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which handles the island's China policy, said the law gives China's military "a blank check to invade Taiwan" and "exposed the Chinese communists' attempt to use force to annex Taiwan and to be a regional power."\nThe island's vice president, Annette Lu, accused Beijing of violating international norms for peacefully resolving disputes as Taipei prepared for an invasion.\nLarge-scale military exercises would be held from mid-April to August, with troops practicing knocking down Chinese missiles and fighting communist commandos, said Taiwan's Defense Ministry spokesman Liu Chih-chien.\nMainland lawmakers immediately expressed support for the anti-secession measure, which is sure to be passed when they vote March 14. The congress routinely approves all legislation already decided by Communist Party leaders.\n"We must join hands and absolutely not allow Taiwan to separate from China," said Chang Houchun, a businessman and member of congress from southern China's Guangdong province.\nChinese officials say the law was prompted in part by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's plans for a referendum on a new constitution for the island that Beijing worries might include a declaration of independence.\nChen says the vote would be aimed at building a better political system, not at formalizing Taiwan's de facto independence.\nChinese leaders have appealed in recent months for Taiwan to return to talks on unification. They insist Taiwanese leaders first declare that the two sides are "one China."\nIn Taipei, Chen Chin-jun, a legislative leader of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said the island wants peace and trade with China.\nHowever, he said, "We will not accept any resolution to allow the Chinese Communists to unilaterally decide Taiwan's future, and it will only antagonize the Taiwanese"