A day after pro-sovereignty candidate Lai Ching-te’s victory in Taiwan, China warned that any steps towards Taiwan’s independence would be “severely punished”. For the head of Chinese diplomacy, “whatever the results of the election, they cannot change the fundamental fact that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of it.”
Any step towards Taiwan’s independence will be “severely punished”, the head of Chinese diplomacy warned on Sunday, after Taiwanese voters chose pro-sovereignty candidate Lai Ching-te as president. Voters on the autonomous island, claimed by China, ignored Beijing’s warnings by granting a large victory to this candidate, described by the Chinese Communist Party as a dangerous separatist.
Beijing, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan back into its fold, reacted to Lai Ching-te’s victory by affirming that it would not change anything in “the inevitable trend towards the reunification of the China”. “If anyone on the island of Taiwan intends to move towards independence, they… will try to divide Chinese territory, and will certainly be severely punished by history and the law,” said Wang Yi during a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry, in Cairo. “It’s a dead end,” he added.
“There is only one China and Taiwan is one of them”
For the head of Chinese diplomacy, “whatever the results of the election, they cannot change the fundamental fact that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of it.” “Taiwan has never been a country. It wasn’t in the past, and it certainly won’t be in the future,” he said.
Efforts in this direction “seriously threaten the well-being of Taiwanese compatriots, seriously harm the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, and seriously undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait region,” Wang Yi warned.