BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) -China “absolutely will not” rule out using force over Taiwan, a government spokesperson said on Wednesday, striking a much tougher tone than a series of articles in state media this week that pledged benign rule if the island comes over to Beijing.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has never renounced use of force to “reunify” with the island.

But the policy is not often directly voiced in public and did not appear in three Xinhua news agency commentaries this week about Taiwan, one of which mapped out how “patriots” could rule the island after “reunification” and promised Taiwan’s existing social system and way of life would be respected.

Peng Qing’en, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told a regular news c

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