Chinese President Hu Jintao today offered to enter talks with Taiwan on a peace agreement.
Addressing the opening of the Communist Party's 17th Congress, Mr Hu warned the self-ruled island against formally declaring independence, but did not take the opportunity to threaten force as predecessors have in the past.
"We would like to make a solemn appeal: on the basis of the one-China principle let us discuss a formal end to the state of hostility between the two sides [and] reach a peace agreement," Mr Hu said.
China has offered in the past to resume talks with Taiwan, frozen since 1999 when then-Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui insisted that bilateral relations be described as "special state to state", implying Taiwan was a separate country.
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since their split in 1949 when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's defeated nationalists fled to the island.
China says the civil war with Taiwan has not ended, although bilateral trade, investment and tourism have blossomed since the late 1980s.
An increasingly assertive Taiwan plans to hold a referendum next year on UN membership, ignoring warnings from the United States and China. The bid is doomed, as China is a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council.