China to step up pressure on Taiwan

Chinese President Jiang Zemin gave this instruction just before arriving in Macau for the handover ceremony on Sunday, it said.

More intensive work on Taiwan should be started soon after the new year, it quoted a Chinese source as saying.

As part of the "united front" strategy, more incentives would be offered to Taiwanese investors in the coastal Fujian and other provinces, while elite Chinese companies would be urged to team up with Taiwanese firms to set up joint ventures in third countries, the report said.

"The idea is, if enough Taiwanbusinessmen are won over, they will put pressure on the Taipei administration to begin talks with Beijing," said the source, who is close to Beijing’s Taiwan policy establishment.

Simultaneously, a special group in the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) would continue to plot semi-military solutions, it said, adding generals were reportedly working on way to paralyse Taiwan’s information technology networks.

Meanwhile, reports from Taipei said Taiwan dismissed China’s latest offer of reunification as "ridiculous".

Reacting on Jiang’s remarks on reunification with Taiwan at the Macau handover, the island’s Vice-President Lien Chan said there was a crucial difference between Taiwan, and Macau and Hong Kong.