Beijing, Dec. 20 ---

Mainland China’s leaders celebrated the return of Macau on Monday with speeches on bringing Taiwan back under Beijing’s rule, while state-controlled media stirred up a frenzy of nationalism for “the great cause of reunification.”

Mainland Chinese President Jiang Zemin, speaking at a nationally televised rally in Beijing Monday evening, reiterated in his third handover address in two days that the Macau handover was only one step ahead of reunification with Taiwan.

“The complete national reunification in accordance with the ‘one China’ principle is the shared aspiration of all Chinese people including Taiwan compatriots and an inevitable historical trend which nobody and no force on earth can ever resist,” Jiang said.

He expressed hopes “that Taiwan authorities will not go against the tide of history, erect obstacles to the development of cross-Straits ties or act against the fundamental interest of Taiwan compatriots and the entire Chinese nation.”

“The Chinese Government and people will never tolerate any attempt to split China.”

“China has both the determination and the ability to resolve the Taiwan issue at an early date and accomplish the great cause of reunification.”

However, Jiang and Premier Zhu Rongji both notably refrained from repeating Beijing’s well-worn mantra that they would not rule out pursuing reunification by force.

“The return of Macau will facilitate the final solution of the Taiwan question and the complete reunification of China,” Zhu said at a nationally televised reception from the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Monday afternoon.

Wall-to-wall coverage on state-run television and in Monday’s newspapers pounded home the message that the Macau handover was only a prelude to the “ultimate return” of Taiwan, while also hailing the end of colonial disgrace at the hands of the western powers, and the “correct policies” of the ruling Communist Party.

“The glorious history of the Chinese nation since ancient times has been to support unity and oppose splittism. Unity of the motherland and patriotism are the feelings deeply rooted in the culture of the Chinese nation,” the Communist Party’s People’s Daily gushed in an editorial.

President Jiang formally placed the reunification of Taiwan at the center of his political agenda in a Spring Festival speech on reunification in 1995.

Since then the issue has dominated party propaganda and “patriotic education,” particularly during the 1997 handover of Hong Kong and the celebrations marking 50 years of communist rule earlier this year.

Jiang has offered Taiwan reunification on the basis of the same “one country, two systems,” principle under which Hong Kong and Macau have been promised 50 years of autonomy from Beijing.

Jiang has also promised to give a Taipei politician a vice premiership in the mainland government upon reunification.