The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday protested against claim by China’s top diplomat Wang Yi (王毅) that Taiwan is part of China.
At the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Wang, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, said that “Taiwan has been a part of China since ancient times. It is never a country and never will be a country.”
It is not China that wants to change the “status quo,” but those “separatists who advocate for Taiwan’s independence do,” he said, adding that calling for Taiwanese independence is incompatible with peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Photo: Reuters
Only by opposing it and following the “one China” principle can peace across the Strait be maintained, he said.
Just as countries around the world call for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity to be maintained, Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity should be protected, he said, adding that “there shouldn’t be double standards on major issues.”
Using Taiwan’s official name, the MAC said in a statement yesterday that the Republic of China (ROC) is a sovereign nation that has never been and never will be a part of the People’s Republic of China.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
The “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait is that the “two sides across the Strait do not belong to one another,” it said, adding that the “one China” principle is China’s attempt to belittle Taiwan and distort the truth.
China’s attempt to mislead other countries has never been recognized by the international community, the MAC said.
While the world jointly condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began almost a year ago, there are heightened concerns about Taiwan’s security, it said.
Photo: Reuters
Beijing lacks the courage to condemn Russia’s aggression, and instead calls the global “consensus” against authoritarian expansionism “double standards,” which only adds to the international community’s doubts and opposition against it, it said.
The MAC called on Beijing to adjust its coercive position against Taiwan and take on the responsibility of maintaining regional security and improving cross-strait relations.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi in separate meetings with Wang on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference reiterated the importance of peace across the Taiwan Strait.
Blinken, during an informal meeting with Wang, said that the US has not changed its “one China” policy, and underlined the importance of maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, the US Department of State said in a statement.
Blinken also reiterated US President Joe Biden’s position that the US would defend its values and interests, but does not want conflict with China or seek a new Cold War, adding that it is important for the two countries to maintain effective communication channels.
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Hayashi and Wang talked for about 50 minutes, during which time Hayashi restated his nation’s position regarding “specific balloon-shaped flying objects” detected in Japan’s airspace, and demanded that intrusions into its airspace never happen again.
Japan is deeply concerned about the situation in the East China Sea, including the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea — known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan — and the frequent military actions taken by China and Russia around Japan, Hayashi said, adding that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is also important.
This story has been amended since it was first published.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
RSS