BEIJING, Oct 11: Statements made by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te will not prevent the inevitable reunification of China, Mao Ning, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Lai delivered a speech, stressing that there must be no “annexation or encroachment” upon Taiwan’s sovereignty.
“There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory. The government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. No matter what they say or do, the Lai Ching-te authorities cannot change the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China, or stop the historical trend that China will and must achieve reunification. The attempt to seek independence and make provocations will lead nowhere,” Mao said.
The spokesowman added that Lai intentionally distorted the historical ties between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait for personal political gain, further escalating tensions in the region.
“There is only one China in the world, Taiwan is an inseparable part of China, and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legitimate government representing the entirety of China,” Mao said.
She also reiterated China’s firm opposition to any official contacts between Taiwan and countries maintaining diplomatic relations with Beijing.
The situation around Taiwan has become significantly more tense since Nancy Pelosi, then-Speaker of US House of Representatives, visited the island in early August 2022. China, which considers the island one of its provinces, condemned Pelosi’s visit, seeing it as US support for Taiwanese separatism, and held large-scale military exercises.
Formal relations between China’s central government and its island province were severed in 1949 after Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang forces, defeated in a civil war with the Communist Party of China, moved to Taiwan. Business and informal contacts between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the two sides have been in contact through non-governmental organizations – the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation. (UNI)
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