There is a peaceful solution to the Taiwan question but it will take time, former US ambassador to China J. Stapleton Roy said yesterday.

"There is no reason for alarm (on the situation in Taiwan) because there is no significant country that supports the independence of Taiwan," Roy told China Daily on the sidelines of a seminar on China's peaceful development and a harmonious world.

Roy said he believed that the public in Taiwan was not in favor of a crisis with the mainland.

Therefore, Taiwan leader Chen Shuibian did not have necessary support to attempt any dangerous actions.

"We do not think that Chen should take actions that can increase mistrust about how Taiwan will handle its relations across the Straits," he said.

Roy reiterated that common interests between China and the US required them to limit strategic mistrust through collaboration.

"Our election periods often create some difficulties in China-US ties, but as soon as the new US government takes office, it discovers that it needs cooperation with China," he said.

The fear at the moment is there are some divergences over economic issues in bilateral relationship, and it is possible that the election process will make the problems more difficult to manage, he said.

But the two countries have established a very good strategic dialogue mechanism to address economic frictions between them. Through the mechanism the two sides can look at a bigger picture about their economic trade relations, he added.

(China Daily November 9, 2007)