BEIJING, March 1 (UPI) -- China's President Hu Jintao has denounced Taiwan's closure of the island's unification body as "a dangerous step on the road toward Taiwan independence."
"Any person who gets on the wrong side of history is doomed to failure," President Hu Jintao told visiting Swiss Defense Minister Samuel Schmid in Beijing Tuesday.
The statement was reported by the official Xinhua news agency and broadcast by state television late Tuesday night.
Xinhua also issued a report quoting Xu Caihou, a Central Military Commission vice chairman, instructing the People's Liberation Army to "step up preparations for military struggle."
The warnings followed Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's announcement Tuesday that the island's National Unification Council would "cease functioning" and its guidelines on unification would "cease to apply."
The council was a product of the previous ruling party, the Kuomintang, aimed at easing relations with Beijing. It had been inoperative since Chen became president in 2000.
U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States would watch the situation closely but believed Taipei had not taken steps to change the status quo.
Chen insisted Tuesday that he was merely defending the right of the Taiwanese people to decide their own future.
