Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen met with Lord William Rees-Mogg, columnist and former editor-in- chief of the British Times newspaper on March 17 in Beijing. Qian expounded on China's basic policy of "peaceful reunification and one country, two systems" in settling the Taiwan issue, highlighted president Jiang Zemin's eight-point proposition in this regard, and said that not allowing the Taiwan issue to linger on indefinitely is an important part of the Chinese government's push for reunification.

As for the role of the United Nations in the present international situation, Qian said that despite a dangerous tendency during the Kosovo crisis of reducing the role of the UN and its Security Council, and even placing certain nation and regional organization over the UN, the final settlement of the crisis within the UN framework shows that the role of the UN in preventing and settling crisis and disputes, as the world's most influential and universal inter-governmental organization, is irreplaceable.

It should be commonly understood that the UN's authority must be safeguarded, and military intervention which brushes aside the UN should be opposed, Qian stressed. Rees-Mogg is visiting China as the guest of the People's Daily newspaper.