A revised edition of the draft Anti-Secession Law was adopted Thursday by the presidium of the current session of China's top legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC), and will put before NPC deputies for deliberation.

The NPC Law Committee amended the draft law after careful study of the views of deputies and the opinions formed at the 13th session of NPC Standing Committee at the end of last year. The committee also scrutinized the draft law article by article, according to a source with the presidium.

Yang Jingyu, chairman of the NPC Law Committee, reported the result of deputies' deliberations on the draft Anti-Secession Law to the presidium.

"The presidium voted to present the revised version of the draft law to the plenum of the NPC session for deliberation," said the source, without talking further about the revisions.

According to him, NPC deputies put forward their views after careful deliberations on the draft law on March 8 shortly after Vice Chairman Wang Zhaoguo of the NPC Standing Committee made explanations on it.

The deputies also studied the March 4 speech of President Hu Jintao, who set forth a four-point guideline on relations across the Taiwan Straits under the new circumstances, when he attended a joint panel discussion of China's top advisory body members representing the Taiwan region.

According to Hu, who also heads the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Military Commission, China will never sway in adhering to the one-China principle, never give up efforts to seek peaceful reunification, never change the principle of placing hope on the Taiwan people, and never compromise in opposing the "Taiwan independence" secessionist activities.

(Xinhua News Agency March 11, 2005)