BEIJING (AP) – China’s President Hu Jintao was named chairman of a government military commission on Sunday, capping a generational transfer of power. He told the 2.5 million-member People’s Liberation Army to be prepared for war on the eve of the expected passage of a law authorizing an attack if Taiwan declares formal independence.

“We shall step up preparations for possible military struggle and enhance our capabilities to cope with crises, safeguard peace, prevent wars and win the wars if any,” the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Hu as saying.

Hu’s comments, made to military delegates at the national legislature, appeared aimed at underlining Beijing’s determination to unify with democratically ruled Taiwan, which split from the Chinese mainland in 1949.

The appointment of Hu as the chairman of the government’s Central Military Commission earlier Sunday was largely symbolic. He already heads a parallel party commission that runs China’s military.

Hu, 62, has shown no sign of diverging from former President Jiang Zemin’s hard-line stance toward Taiwan, a democratically ruled island that Beijing insists is part of the communist mainland.

The two sides split in a civil war more than 50 years ago, and Beijing has long threatened to invade if Taipei takes formal steps toward independence.

On Monday, the National People’s Congress was expected to approve an anti-secession law aimed at discouraging self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory, from making its de facto independence permanent.

“We must … always place the task of defending national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and safeguarding the interests of national development above anything else,” Xinhua quoted Hu as telling military delegates to the congress.

Taiwan’s government has condemned the law, saying it risks raising tensions.

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has said it “enables China to unilaterally decide Taiwan’s future and ignore that Taiwanese have the right to choose a democratic and free lifestyle.”

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