China's minister in charge of Taiwan affairs says Beijing will not resort to force to defend Taiwan despite the changing situation on the island, which he described as "our renegade province". Wang Yi, who made a three-day working visit to Thailand last week, sought to allay fears amongst allies in Asia about its cross-straits ties with Taiwan. He gave an assurance that the situation would not escalate into war despite the latter's acquisition of offensive weapons from the United States. "Weapons cannot prevent Taiwan from reuniting with China," he told Thai and Chinese media last week. Wang's visit, which will also take in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, comes as pressure mounts on both sides to resume dialogue as Beijing is poised to become a member of the World Trade Organisation next year. Taiwan will follow suit shortly after. He said Beijing will maintain its pursuit of peaceful unification with Taiwan and welcomed the resumption of dialogue, bogged down since 1999. At that time, then president Lee Teng-hui demanded political parity by unilaterally redefining bilateral ties as "special state-to-state" relations. While President Chen Shui-bian has mellowed his stance on independence, he has refused to bow to the "one-China policy", a precondition for dialogue. In his latest speech, Chen said the long-standing dispute with China must be resolved through dialogue with respect to the principles of democracy and freedom. Nevertheless, Taiwan heightened its diplomatic campaign through what Wang said was "parliamentarian" or "private diplomacy" to win recognition from Beijing's allies. Beijing was so worried about the tactic that Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji raised the matter in May with Thai leaders during his official visit to Thailand. He said the number of Thai politicians visiting Taiwan, especially members of Parliament, was increasing at an "unusual" rate. "We disapproved of these visits because no matter in what capacity these people travel, Taiwan treats them as official visits. To us, parliamentarians still hold a quasi-official status," he said. Taiwanese officials in Bangkok always claimed these trips from Thailand to Taiwan were voluntary and initiated by the visitors themselves. Wang said Beijing raised no objections to the so-called stop-over tactic used by Taiwanese leaders as long as the visits do not generate political activities in the host country. Despite a still-tense relationship, Wang is optimistic reunification will eventually happen as was the case with Hong Kong and Macau. He said the decline in President Chen's popularity could be attributed to the drop in the number of people favouring independence. "I believe less than 10 per cent of Taiwanese now favour independence," he said. However, according to broad statistics, Taiwan-born voters favouring independence account for 65 per cent of the island's 23 million population. Wang believes unification will benefit people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits. Last year there were 2.85 million Taiwanese visitors in China, he said.