People on the Chinese mainland should not have contact with a person who shouts "Long live the independence of Taiwan," Professor Huang Jiashu of the People's University of China said in Beijing Thursday.

If such a person becomes the leader of Taiwan, there will be growing crisis and tension in cross-Straits relations, which will harm the good fortune and interests of the people of Taiwan, Huang said at a press conference hosted by the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS). At present, some in Taiwan say that when a candidate favoring the "independence of Taiwan" comes into power, the Chinese mainland will accept him and have contact with him as well. This is the election tactic of Chen Shui-bian and the Democratic Progressive Party, and Taiwan compatriots should beware of it, Huang said.

The Chinese mainland always resolutely opposes the " independence of Taiwan." Relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits will become more tense if a candidate favoring the "independence of Taiwan" seize power, he noted. Xin Qi, a research fellow at the China Peace and Development Studies Center, said that the assumption of the reins of government by a man who clings to the "independence of Taiwan" is a challenge to the national interests of China and to regional and world peace. The Chinese government will by no means sit by and watch.

Li Jiaquan, executive director of the Taiwan Studies Society, said that persistence in the one China principle is fundamental for the Chinese mainland. "We should not tolerate the ' independence of Taiwan' in any form," he said. Chen Shui-bian uttered the words "Long live the independence of Taiwan" as early as 1989, and has never changed his attitude over the past decade and more, he said.

Guo Zhenyuan, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, said China must realize the cause of reunification, which is the aspiration of the Chinese people at home and abroad. The local election in Taiwan touches upon an issue of principle, namely, how to develop cross-Straits relations and whether China should be united or split. Therefore, the Chinese government must make it clear that whoever comes into power must not engage in any form of "Taiwan independence." Xu Shiquan, director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, expressed the hope that Taiwan compatriots will refrain from impulse and take their own interests as well as the interests of the Chinese nation into consideration at this historic juncture in cross-Straits relations. If a situation which no one wants to see does occur, the people of Taiwan will be the major sufferers.