The People's Liberation Army of China always maintains a high degree of combat readiness, he stressed. All measures will be taken to thwart Taiwan's plans to achieve independence. The PRC's efforts will also be aimed at protecting state sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Relations between China and its island province broke off in 1949. Then the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek were defeated in the civil war with the Chinese Communist Party and moved to Taiwan.
There have been no contacts between the island and the mainland for more than 30 years, they resumed only in the 1980s. Now the parties are in contact through non—governmental organizations - the Beijing Association for the Development of Relations across the Taiwan Strait and the Taipei Cross-Strait Exchange Fund.
