It will take “decades” for Taiwan and China to consider unification as the conditions are not currently ripe, the Presidential Office said yesterday, dismissing a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report that quoted President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as saying that it will happen “in the next decade.”

Paul Chang (張國葆), the acting director-general of the Department of Public Affairs, said the paper misquoted Ma in an interview published online on Monday, adding that Ma was “stunned” when he saw the report and immediately asked him to straighten things out.