China on Sunday called on the United States to keep its promise on the Taiwan issue and to safeguard peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits and the sound development of the China-US ties.

"There's only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

Qin was in response to a question about US President George W. Bush's remarks on Saturday which called on the two sides of the Taiwan Straits to pursue peace and stability through dialogue and refrain from unilateral moves that would alter the cross-Straits situation.

"We urge the United States to adhere to the one-China policy and the three Sino-US joint communiques, oppose 'Taiwan independence', oppose Taiwan's joining the United Nations and other international organizations which only open to sovereign nations," Qin said.

The Chinese government's policy on the cross-Straits relations has been stated clearly and comprehensively in President Hu Jintao's remarks on March 4, Qin said.

According to?Hu, secessionist activities in Taiwan have become the greatest menace to China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, but such activities are doomed to fail.

As for the realization of peaceful development of cross-Straits relations, Hu said, "We take adherence to the one-China principle as the foundation, with the seeking of benefits for compatriots on both sides of the Straits as the objective, and the deepening of mutually-beneficial, win-win exchange and cooperation as the approach."

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2008)