The Chinese mainland warned Taiwan secessionist forces on Wednesday that it will take "necessary measures" if they continue to take the risks of pushing for "Taiwan independence."

At a press conference, Spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council Yang Yi said if "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces cling to its own course of risking for "Taiwan independence," the mainland "will definitely take necessary measures to safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity and protect our nation's core interests."

All activities aimed at harming the Chinese mainland will be punished, said a mainland official in Beijing on Wednesday, in response to a question from a Taiwanese journalist about the alleged detention of a Taiwanese person by the Chinese mainland authorities on Internet spy charges.

The spokesman said Taiwan's intelligence agencies have been spying on China’s mainland on a large scale through the Internet over the past few years, which "has resulted in serious consequences."

He said "any activities which have caused damage to the Chinese mainland will be investigated and punished by law."

The Chinese mainland expressed strong opposition to Taiwan's development of nuclear weapons in any form, the spokesman said Wednesday, in response to a journalist question on Chen Shui-bian's related remark that Taiwan will not develop nuclear weapons but needs to improve its defense capability.

"We have noticed the related reports," the spokesman said. "We are uncompromisingly against Taiwan's development of nuclear weapons or nuclear weapon capability in any form," he said.

Yang Yi also said the Chinese mainland hopes to resume talks across the Taiwan Straits based on the 1992 Consensus highlighting the one-China principle.

"We haven't changed our stance to stick to the 1992 Consensus, say no to 'Taiwan independence,' seek stability and peaceful development across the Straits and protect the interests of people on both sides," said he, when answering a question about whether the mainland will try and reestablish the mechanism between the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), or find a new channel to work for a peace agreement across the Straits.

The 1992 Consensus was reached at a meeting between the ARATS from the mainland and SEF from Taiwan in 1992, in which both sides recognized that there is only one China in the world but agreed to differ on its explanation.

Chinese President Hu Jintao in his keynote speech to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) called for discussions across the Taiwan Straits for a formal end to the state of hostility and reaching a peace agreement on the basis of the one-China principle.

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2007)