BEIJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- A Chinese mainland official said here Wednesday that the situation of cross-Straits relations remained severe though non-governmental exchanges had kept developing last year.

    Li Weiyi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council, or China's cabinet, said at a regular press conference that last year, the Taiwan authorities further intensified their efforts for "Taiwan independence" activities.

    "The Taiwan authorities twisted the will of the Taiwan people, incited the hostile sentiment among the people to the mainland, did their utmost to challenge the fact that the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China, and continued to carry forward 'Taiwan independence' activities by pushing ahead the so-called 'Constitutional reform', which had brought the cross-Straits relationship to a dangerous edge," Li said.

    The provocative moves of the Taiwan authorities for "Taiwan independence" posed a severe threat to peace and stability across the Straits and in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, aroused resolute opposition among the 1.3 billion Chinese people and Taiwan compatriots, and were strongly blamed by an increasing number of countries all over the world, said the spokesman.

    Currently the situation of the cross-Straits relationship remained severe, he said. Chen Shui-bian formulated a new term of "Constitutional reform" to replace the former term of "establishing a new Taiwan Constitution" and promised that the "Constitutional reform" would not touch upon the issues of territory, sovereignty and reunification after he started his second tenure last May, but in fact he had been attempting to legitimatize "Taiwan independence" through "Constitutional reform".

    Since last September, especially during the election of the "legislation council", Chen announced a series of "Taiwan independence" ideas, covering almost all the major aspects for changing Taiwan's status. He had been making preparations for "Taiwan independence" in a planned way and step by step through his attempt to revise the law on "referendum" and step up "rectification of Taiwan's name" and "desinification" in political,cultural and other areas.

    Li stressed that currently it is the urgent task for the compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits to stop "Taiwan Independence" activities and safeguard peace and stability across the Straits.

    "This year, we will stick to the basic principles of 'peaceful reunification' and 'one country, two systems', as well as the eight-point proposal on promoting the development of the cross-Straits relations, and continue to pursue peaceful reunification with our utmost sincerity and efforts," said Li.

    The spokesman said the mainland will continue to promote economic and cultural exchanges across the Straits and push forward the process of the three "direct links" so as to realize the resumption of cross-Straits dialogue and negotiation on the basis of the one-China principle at an early date.

    "But we will never allow anyone to separate Taiwan from China in any name and by any means," Li said.

    The year 2004 also witnessed continuous development of various non-governmental exchanges and communications across the Straits, and new progress was made in cross-Straits personnel, economic andcultural exchanges, Li added.

    Last year, he said, the mainland received 3.686 million visitors from Taiwan, a year-on-year increase of 34.9 percent; andmainland residents paid 145,000 visits to Taiwan, up 14.2 percent.

    Customs statistics also showed that in 2004 the indirect trade volume across the Taiwan Straits for the first time exceeded 70 billion US dollars, up 34.2 percent over 2003, while the contractual investment in the mainland by Taiwan business people totaled 9.306 billion dollars, up 8.74 percent, Li added. Enditem