BEIJING — China says it might adopt a law mandating that rival Taiwan unify with the mainland.
"Unification is the common wish of the Chinese people, including Taiwan people," Li Weiyi, a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said Wednesday. "China will seriously consider all suggestions for unification, including by legal means."
If a unification law is proposed "we will seriously consider it and adopt it," Li said at a regular news briefing.
Taiwan had no immediate comment on the possible unification law.
China and Taiwan split in 1949 during a civil war, but the Communist Beijing government claims the self-ruled island as its territory.
Talk of a legal option is a new twist, and it is unclear how China would enforce such a law.
Last month, Chinese lawmakers asserted their authority over Hong Kong, ruling that the former British colony won't have direct elections for its next leader and legislature.
The decision sparked outrage in Hong Kong.
Beijing promised Hong Kong a "high degree of autonomy" when the territory returned to Chinese control in 1997. The Communist government says its rule of Hong Kong, which allows many Western-style freedoms, should be the model for its eventual rule over Taiwan.
Taiwan's democratically elected president, Chen Shui-bian, has rejected that model.
Chen was re-elected in March by a slim margin, and election officials on Monday began recounting the ballots following a challenge by the opposition.
In China's view, "it doesn't matter who is elected as long as he accepts the one-China policy," Li said, referring to China's stance that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of it.
"If Chen Shui-bian really wants peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, he must accept the one-China policy and stop his Taiwan independence activities," Li added. "There is no second road."
Officials on Wednesday affirmed China's opposition to Taiwan's effort to gain an observer's seat at the World Health Organization, which is to meet May 17-22 in Geneva.
"We welcome Taiwan to join China's delegation and attend the conference together," Health Ministry official Wang Liji said at the news conference. "But to our regret, Taiwan hasn't responded."
But Taiwan's agency responsible for China policy said Beijing was only inviting Taiwanese delegates in order to undermine the island's bid to join the WHO.
"The Communist Chinese are sacrificing the Taiwanese people's well-being for the sake of their own selfish political interests," the Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.