China will attack Taiwan if there is no other way of stopping it from becoming independent, one of the country's most senior generals said on Friday, a rhetorical escalation from China aimed at the democratic island Beijing claims as its own.

Speaking at Beijing's Great Hall of the People on the 15th anniversary of the Anti-Secession Law, Li Zuocheng, chief of the Joint Staff Department and member of the Central Military Commission, left the door open to...