PRESIDENT Jiang Zemin will make a 'reunification appeal' to Taiwan leaders in a speech to be delivered on the eve of Lunar New Year.
Sources said Beijing's Taiwan policy-makers had billed it as a 'final' peace initiative before Beijing would start considering tougher action against what it viewed to be a breakaway province.
A team of Mr Jiang's advisers and Taiwan experts is working on the address.
In his so-called eight-point reunification initiative on the eve of last Lunar New Year, Mr Jiang vowed that 'Chinese will not fight Chinese' and that he and Taiwan leaders could exchange visits.
The appeal was denigrated by hard-line generals, and after Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's visit to the United States last June, military elements practically took over Beijing's Taiwan policy.
'Jiang Zemin will again appeal to Lee Teng-hui and other Taiwan leaders to stop postponing the issue of reunification indefinitely,' a source said.
'Jiang is expected to indicate that while his eight-point peace initiative is still valid, time is running out, and Taipei must make a return gesture soon.' The source added that in line with Beijing's time-honoured carrot-and-stick approach, the People's Liberation Army was readying a major exercise before Taiwan's presidential elections in late March.
