What is called the Taiwan question, connotatively speaking, includes the following three aspects:

(1) The Taiwan question is a question left over by the civil war in China, and it is purely China's internal affair. On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded and a group of military and political officials of the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan after being defeated. With the support of the then U.S. administration, they set up a separate regime in Taiwan by the force of arms. So, the Taiwan question is first of all the question of the relationships between the Government of the People's Republic of China -- the sole legal government representing the entire Chinese people with the capital in Beijing - and the Taiwan authorities, and it should be resolved by the Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

(2) The Taiwan question is a question of safeguarding state sovereignty and territorial integrity, defending national honour and opposing external interference by the Chinese Government and people. The U.S. government should strictly observe the principles enshrined in the three Sino-U.S. joint communiqués and thoroughly correct and stop various erroneous practices of making use the Taiwan question to interfere in China's internal affairs and obstruct the reunification of China.

(3) The Taiwan question is in essence a struggle between the forces for and against division, and between the forces for and against "Taiwan independence", and the focus is the struggle between one China and "two Chinas". The Chinese Government and people adhere to the principle of one China, resolutely oppose all schemes aimed at splitting the country and the nation, and resolutely oppose any attempts of creating "two Chinas", "one China and one Taiwan" or "Taiwan independence".