The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin for disparaging Taiwan’s sovereignty by saying that Taiwan issues are “China’s internal affairs.”
The ministry strongly condemned Putin’s “false” remarks that “undermined the sovereignty of the Republic of China,” ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news briefing.
Xinhua news agency cited Putin as telling Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a telephone call on Wednesday that Russia opposed any interference from external forces in China’s internal affairs, such as in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Screengrab from the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s virtual news conference
Ou said that Taiwanese elect their government in free and fair elections, adding that only the government in Taipei can represent Taiwan.
Beijing’s irredentist claims only cause resentment among Taiwanese, she said.
In the face of Beijing’s long-term threats to Taiwan, the government and the public are determined to fight Chinese intimidation, Ou said, adding that their determination is based on the belief that “God helps those who help themselves.”
The government will continue to strengthen Taiwan’s ties with like-minded democratic nations to solicit their support, she added.
By safeguarding freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, Taiwan makes significant contributions to the development and stability of the global economy, she said, calling it a powerful tool to counter China’s authoritarian expansion.
The government will keep boosting Taiwan’s self-defense and asymmetric warfare capabilities, deepening its ties with the US to safeguard a rules-based international order, and promoting peace, stability and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait and in the Indo-Pacific region, she said.
The ministry also thanked the US for reiterating that it would ensure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself and deter aggression.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the remarks in an interview with the US’ Public Broadcasting Service on Tuesday.
He said that China has over the past decade been “acting more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad,” including through actions against Taiwan, which are “potentially dangerous and destabilizing.”
He urged China to take into consideration the response that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine provoked from countries around the world.
Moreover, the US has promised Taiwan’s safety under its Taiwan Relations Act, Blinken said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS