Beijing turned up the heat on Taiwan a further degree yesterday, wheeling out its leading academics to warn Taiwan that China might give it only a matter of hours to agree to start reunification talks after presidential elections tomorrow.
In Taipei, the government dipped into its multi-billion dollar reserve account for the first time yesterday to rescue its stock market from a precipitous dive following renewed threats of military action against Taiwan from the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Zhu Rongji, on Wednesday.
With popular support for the pro-independence candidate, Mr Chen Shui-bian, apparently growing in Taiwan, China has stepped up its bellicose rhetoric to persuade electors they would be safer supporting his rivals, the ruling Nationalist Party candidate, Mr Lien Chan, or a breakaway Nationalist, Mr James Soong.
The panel of Taiwan specialists produced in Beijing yesterday was headed by Mr Tang Shubei, deputy director of the government's Taiwan Affairs Office.
A senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mr Li Jiaquan, told journalists that the election of Mr Chen would be a challenge to the Chinese people and also one to global peace.
Asked about a possible deadline for unification talks being imposed by Beijing, he said: "If you are for peaceful reunification, it could be longer. "But if you are moving towards Taiwan independence, it's hard to say. It could be three to five years or there could be a change within 24 hours."
Chinese academics often interpret and expand on policy statements, but only with express government backing.
"The timetable is in the hands of the mainland, even more so in the hands of Taiwan's new leader, and frankly speaking in the hands of Taiwan voters," said Mr Xu Bodong, director of Taiwan research at Beijing Lianhe University.
"If they choose a leader who advocates Taiwan independence, this timetable may well not be a question of years but of a few dozen hours."
On Wednesday, Mr Zhu warned voters they might not get a second chance if they voted for a pro-independence candidate to lead Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province.
"Let me advise all these people in Taiwan: do not just act on impulse at this juncture which will decide the future course that China and Taiwan will follow. Otherwise, I'm afraid you won't get another opportunity to regret," he said.
The Prime Minister's forceful words caused panic selling on the Taiwan stock market yesterday, and mainland China shares also closed sharply lower on worries over possible military conflict.
The benchmark TAIEX stocks index lost 4.51 per cent in early trading yesterday but after buying from the government reserve fund, the index rebounded to close 0.49 per cent higher.
The government has raised $6.51 billion for the fund.
Mr Chen condemned Beijing's "terror tactics" at a rally on Wednesday, but yesterday he was much more cautious at a news conference, saying his Democratic Progressive Party "has already expressed the greatest goodwill, sincerity and responsibility, and proposed many constructive views on peace between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait".
He added that "Beijing authorities should recognise that threats will only make Taiwan walk farther away and disrupt normalisation of cross-strait relations".
There are signs that Mr Chen's campaign is gaining momentum. He has won the backing of Taiwan's top scientist, Nobel laureate Dr Lee Yuan-tseh - a key endorsement in a society that venerates scholars.
Mr Chen recently told The Irish Times in an interview that, despite Beijing's rhetoric against him, he could be the Richard Nixon who would cut a deal with communist China - a reference to the fact that US President Nixon stunned the world by visiting China in 1972 and began the process of normalising Sino-US relations.
A survey in the mass-circulation China Times yesterday showed 40 per cent of 782 respondents believed Mr Zhu's remarks would have an impact on the elections, while 29 per cent disagreed.
The poll showed 51 per cent of the respondents were not worried about the possibility of war breaking out, while 42 per cent were anxious.