China’s foreign minister has warned countries that intervene in Taiwan that they are playing with fire and will eventually get burned.
Qin Gang said that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to China and that this represented the status quo. “Recently there has been absurd rhetoric accusing China of upending the status quo, disrupting peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Such claims go against basic common sense on international relations and historical justice. The logic is absurd and the conclusion dangerous,” he told the Lanting Forum in Shanghai.
“Taiwan has been an inalienable part of China’s territory since ancient times and both sides of the Strait belong to one and the same China…It is not the Chinese mainland, but the Taiwan independence separatist forces and a handful of countries attempting to take advantage of Taiwan independence that are disrupting international rules.”
Mr Qin said that Beijing’s critics over Taiwan were seeking to hollow out the one-China principle and to achieve the “peaceful division” of China through independence for Taiwan. He said that Taiwan’s return to China was part of the post-war international order, written into the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation, and that China would not accept the loss of any part of its territory.
“The Taiwan question is the core of the core interests of China, and there will be no vagueness at all in China’s response to anyone who attempts to distort the one-China principle. We will never back down in face of any act that undermines China’s sovereignty and security. Those who play with fire on Taiwan will eventually get themselves burned,” he said.
Mr Qin’s remarks came amid a diplomatic standoff between Beijing and Seoul after South Korea’s president Yoon Suk Yeol blamed China’s “attempts to change the status by force” for tensions over Taiwan. “The Taiwan issue is not simply an issue between China and Taiwan but, like the issue of North Korea, it is a global issue,” Mr Yoon said.
Beijing responded by saying it did not need to be told what to do by other countries, and South Korea’s foreign ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador in Seoul to complain about the “rude” response.
China warned ships against entering waters off the coast of Shandong province this weekend because military exercises would be conducted there and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will also conduct exercises in the South China Sea. They come ahead of the biggest ever joint US-Philippine military exercises next week, a prelude to regular joint patrols in the South China Sea.
Members of the US Congress this week staged a war game on Capitol Hill simulating an invasion of Taiwan from the Chinese mainland, concluding that Washington should supply Taiwan with more arms, including long-range missiles.
“We are well within the window of maximum danger for a Chinese Communist Party invasion of Taiwan, and yesterday’s war game stressed the need to take action to deter CCP aggression and arm Taiwan to the teeth before any crisis begins,” Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher, who chairs the House China committee, said in a statement.
