National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence.
The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday.
“If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra prudence, unequivocally opposes Taiwanese independence and supports China’s peaceful reunification,” a readout of the meeting published by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday showed.
Photo: AFP
The White House’s statement about the meeting was different, Tsai said yesterday in response to media queries, adding that the Chinese leader seldom directly mentioned the name of a Taiwanese leader at international occasions.
The NSB would not exclude the possibility of Beijing deliberately using media propaganda or cognitive warfare, he said.
Meanwhile, the DPP yesterday condemned China for repeatedly misrepresenting meeting content to downgrade Taiwan.
Beijing had wrongly quoted the Three Joint Communiques in February last year by saying that the US recognizes “one China,” when the statement was actually the US acknowledges “one China,” the DPP said.
Seoul in May criticized Beijing for mischaracterizing South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s remark at the China-Japan-South Korea trilateral summit as “South Korea adheres to the ‘one China’ principle,” saying that South Korea only “respects” the principle and opposes changing the “status quo” by force, it said.
Tokyo also rebutted Beijing’s version of Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoko Kamikawa’s remark that “Japan’s adherence to the ‘one China’ principle did not change” after she met with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) in July.
Japan said its view on cross-strait issues aligns with the Joint Communique of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People’s Republic of China.
Separately, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) yesterday said Xi mentioning Lai is a sign of danger, adding that Beijing in the past never directly named Taiwanese leaders.
By mentioning Lai in the statement, “Xi was telling Taiwanese that Beijing’s actions against Taiwan, including the military drills, were all aimed at Lai and the DPP,” he said.
Additional reporting by Lin Hsin-han and CNA
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