Wang Yi warns of 'ferocious storms' if one-China policy is abandoned by US

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said the one-China principle is what underpins stability across the Taiwan Strait and warned of "ferocious storms" across the region if the principle is "arbitrarily challenged or even sabotaged."

Wang made the remarks when asked about the root cause of the current tensions across the Taiwan Strait as he made a policy speech at the ASEAN Secretariat, Xinhua news agency reported.

Wang said history and practice have repeatedly proved that when the one-China principle is fully recognized and thoroughly followed, the Taiwan Strait would remain calm and the two sides enjoy peaceful development. However, when the one-China principle is arbitrarily challenged or even sabotaged, there would be dark clouds or even ferocious storms across the Taiwan Strait.

Wang said the current tensions across the Taiwan Strait are rooted in the fact that Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities have abandoned the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle, undermining the important foundation for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, and going further down the wrong path of "seeking independence with foreign support."

He also pointed out that the United States is constantly distorting and hollowing out the one-China policy, trying to use the "Taiwan card" to disrupt and hinder China's development process.

Wang noted that people are now talking about maintaining the "status quo," and what is the "status quo" of the Taiwan question? He said the facts are evident and clear: the two sides across the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China, and Taiwan is a part of China's territory. Though there has been political antagonism between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, China's sovereignty and territorial integrity have never been severed.

"This is the true status quo of the Taiwan Strait, which has not changed since ancient times and will not change," Wang said, adding that it is the DPP authorities and the external forces which attempt to "use the Taiwan question to contain China" that have challenged and undermined the status quo.

Stressing that the Taiwan question is the core of China's core interests, Wang noted that safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity is the bounden responsibility of every Chinese descendant, and no one, force or country should dream of separating Taiwan from China.

Pointing out that the one-China principle is also the basic principle for China to establish diplomatic ties with other countries, and constitutes a part of the post-World War II international order, Wang said it is hoped and believed that all countries would fully recognize the serious harmfulness of "Taiwan independence" and secession, and work with China to uphold the one-China principle.

"A more clear-cut attitude in upholding the one-China principle and more forceful measures to contain separatist forces lead to more possibilities for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and more guarantees for regional peace and prosperity," Wang said.

China continues to regard Taiwan as a province despite decades of separate governance. It has even threatened to overtake the island by force.

US President Joe Biden in May said that Washington is ready to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan in the event of invasion. Later, US Defence officials claimed that there was no change in the country's Taiwan policy.

The United States has stressed many times recently that it would safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every country, to which, Wang said, China attaches great importance as it conforms to the basic norms governing international relations and the purposes of the UN Charter. "But taking into account the track record of the U.S. side, it must be stressed that the United States should not engage in double standards, backtracking and flip-flopping on its position,' Wang noted.

(ANI)

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