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.
Tension has been simmering since Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's re-election in March. Chen said last week that the next two years were key to resuming dialogue with China and suggested that the two sides set up a "buffer zone" to avoid accidental military conflict.
"I think it is unavoidable tension will rise in the Taiwan Straits and there may even be armed conflict ... if the island keeps bumping Beijing's 'one China' bottom line and pushes for independence," said Wang.
"I think these gestures by Chen Shui-bian with regard to cross-straits relations are insincere," he said, adding that Chen remained intent on pushing a separatist agenda.
China's Communist rulers have claimed the island as a breakaway province since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and have threatened to attack if Taiwan formally declares independence.
Beijing is convinced that Chen is testing its patience and pushing the self-governed, democratic island toward independence.
"The Chen Shui-bian authorities are exploiting our restraint on the Taiwan issue," said Wang, a People's Liberation Army major general before becoming vice minister in 2000.
"They are attempting to exploit ... the fact that mainland compatriots are focusing energy on developing the economy and exploit our preparations for the 2008 Olympics," he said.
In separate written remarks, Wang, 58, said Taiwan's flirting with independence was "extremely dangerous behaviour that was playing with fire".
"The coming few years will be a key and highly dangerous period in the development of the Taiwan situation. Cross-straits relations will face a severe test," Wang said.
One of the first major tests could come in December when Taiwan holds legislative elections.
Chen has pledged to seek UN membership using the name Taiwan if his party wins a majority in the legislature in the December 11 poll, Taiwan newspapers reported on Monday.
In the past, Taiwan has used its official name, Republic of China, to seek to join the UN and Beijing could see a bid under the name Taiwan as tantamount to a declaration of statehood. Taiwan was ousted from China's seat in the United Nations in 1971.
Despite his warnings, Wang said Beijing would push for a resumption of dialogue under the "one China" principle which dictates that mainland and island are parts of a single country.
"The one China principle is the most fundamental, the most basic and necessary consensus," he said.
Talks between the two sides have been frozen since 1999.
On Monday, Chinese newspapers quoted a top negotiator with Taiwan as saying talks could resume if the island stuck to a 1992 interpretation of the "one China" principle.
The 1992 consensus, in which Beijing and Taipei agreed to their own interpretations of the "one China" principle, led to talks, but they broke down in 1999 when then-president Lee Teng-hui redefined ties as "special state-to-state" relations.
Wang said Chen's most recent actions were advancing his independence-seeking agenda.
"I think on the surface Chen Shui-bian's remarks on relations across the Taiwan straits have a certain kindness, but in reality they protect his Taiwan independence separatist stance," he said.
One of the latest plans of the island's leadership is to re-write its high school curriculum to separate the history of Taiwan from that of China, as part of a drive to foster a stronger identity. Wang called the move "very ridiculous and laughable".