So far, the orders from Beijing in response to Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's call for a referendum to decide the island's future have amounted to nothing more than public sabre-rattling.
While Chinese spokesmen and the government-controlled media issued dire warnings and sought to play up pre-planned war exercises on the Fujian coast opposite Taiwan, the official response has been limited to rhetoric.
The mainland leadership appears to have come a long way since 1996, when it conducted major military exercises in the Taiwan Strait and fired four ballistic missiles into waters north and south of the island.
Those heated, but apparently calculated, actions were made in relation to former president Lee Teng-hui's private visit to the US in mid-1995 and to frighten voters away from supporting the increasingly pro-independence leader during the first direct presidential elections (he was subsequently elected). The US deployed two aircraft carriers, along with their battle groups, to the area.
Six years later and much has changed. Mr Lee retired in 2000, when the electorate chose Mr Chen, of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, over Mr Lee's KMT successor; a conservative Republican administration in Washington is pursuing a more cautious policy towards Beijing while showing stronger signs of support - including military assistance - for Taipei; and Taiwan appears to be drifting further away from the mainland.
So why has the Chinese leadership, headed by Jiang Zemin, displayed so much restraint over the latest tensions sparked by the Taiwan president's remarks early this month?
Political analysts say the leadership might have been distracted by machinations surrounding the expected retirement plans of Mr Jiang, which have been thrown into doubt in the past few months; preparations for the 16th Communist Party Congress to be held this autumn; or that China's entry into the World Trade Organisation might have moderated the response.
