There is a peaceful solution to the Taiwan question but it will take time, former US ambassador to China J. Stapleton Roy said yesterday.

"There is no reason for alarm (on the situation in Taiwan) because there is no significant country that supports the independence of Taiwan," Roy told China Daily on the sidelines of a seminar on China's peaceful development and a harmonious world.

Roy said he believed that the public in Taiwan was not in favor of a crisis with the mainland.