The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday slammed China’s threat to use force to annex Taiwan, saying that it was disrupting peace in the Taiwan Strait and the region.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office earlier yesterday issued a white paper laying out how it intends to claim Taiwan through a range of economic incentives and military pressure.
“We are ready to create vast space for peaceful reunification, but we will leave no room for separatist activities in any form,” said the paper, the first it has issued on Taiwan since 2000.
Photo: CNA
China will “not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures,” it said, but added: “We will only be forced to take drastic measures to respond to the provocation of separatist elements or external forces should they ever cross our red lines.”
“The independence-seeking behavior of the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] authorities has led to tensions across the Taiwan Strait, endangered the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait, undermined the prospect of peaceful reunification, squeezed the space for peaceful reunification, and is a barrier for peaceful reunification that must be removed,” the paper said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is also DPP chairperson, said: “China issued its white paper this morning in a wishful thinking way, disregarding the reality of the cross-strait situation.”
She added that Taiwanese would not cave on safeguarding their sovereignty.
Rejecting the paper as “full of ... lies,” the MAC said in a statement: “Taiwan maintains that ‘neither side belongs to the other,’ and firmly refuses ‘one country, two systems’ — this is the current status of the Taiwan Strait and reality.”
“The clumsy political machinations by the authorities in Beijing serves to highlight its barbarian mindset that justifies its ambitions to invade Taiwan at the cost of wrecking the peace in the Taiwan Strait and the region,” it said.
The Republic of China is a sovereign state in Taiwan while the Chinese Communist Party regime has never ruled Taiwan proper or the outlying islands of Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, it said.
Beijing’s “one China principle” represents a misinterpretation of the UN Charter, and the world has roundly denounced its delusional claims of sovereignty over Taiwan and disruptions of the international order, it said.
The Chinese white paper is a “cliched document written for the benefit of its internal audience before the 20th national congress of the communists,” it said.
“China’s describing of a path for Taiwan’s development is an act of deception and self-deception, which will prove futile,” the MAC said. “[The document] disgusts 23 million Taiwanese, who are the only people with the right to decide Taiwan’s future.”
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