Senior military leaders Chi Haotian and Zhang Wannian Tuesday afternoon joined deputies to the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in their group discussion.
The PLA deputies are here attending the Fifth Session of the Ninth NPC, which opened Tuesday morning.
Chi, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission and defense minister, stressed that it is the common aspiration of the all Chinese, including Taiwanese, to resolve the Taiwan issue and realize the complete reunification of the motherland, which tolerates no obstruction by any one and any force.
"We will continue to implement the basic principle of 'peaceful reunification' and 'one country, two systems' and the eight-point proposition on the Taiwan issue put forward by President Jiang Zemin. But we would not undertake to renounce the use of force," Chi said.
He said, the PLA shoulders the holy obligations to safeguard the unity of the motherland and is determined and capable of shattering any attempt to split the motherland.
Zhang Wannian, also a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, said that persistent efforts should be made to build the army with science and technology and promote the modernization of the armed forces.
He called for more efforts to explore the characteristics and rules of warfare under high-tech conditions, stressing that the army should attach great importance to safeguarding social stability so as to create a sound social environment for the reform, opening-up and modernization drive of China.
(People's Daily March 6, 2002)
