China on Thursday condemned a meeting between US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing in California, calling it a serious violation of the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques.
“It seriously infringes upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and sends an egregiously wrong signal to the “Taiwan independence” separatist forces. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns it,” Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Tsai met McCarthy, the third highest-ranking official of the US government, and a bipartisan group of US politicians at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday.
It was the third time a Taiwanese president has met with a US House speaker since Taiwan and US ended official diplomatic relations in 1979, and the first time the encounter has taken place on US soil.
The ministry stressed that the one-China principle is the prerequisite and basis for the establishment and development of China-US diplomatic relations, adding that the US made a clear commitment of maintaining only unofficial relations with Taiwan in the three China-US joint communiques.
The statement accused of the US for having been crossing the line and acting provocatively on issues such as US-Taiwan official exchanges, arms sales to and military dealings with Taiwan and creating chances for Taiwan to expand its so-called “international space,” and kept fudging and hollowing out the one-China principle.
“In response to the egregiously wrong action taken by the US and Taiwan, China will take strong and resolute measures to defend our sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it warned.
Separately, China’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that the Chinese military will always keep on high alert.
“We firmly oppose all forms of official interaction between the US and Taiwan and any visit by leader of the Taiwan authorities to the US in any name or under whatever pretext,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The People’s Liberation Army of China will stand by its responsibility and mission and always keep on high alert,” adding that the military will “resolutely safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” When then US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last August, China has objected to the meeting, warning that it would take “resolute measures” to protect Chinese sovereignty. China and Taiwan separated after a civil war in 1949, but Beijing regards the island as its territory.
Source: Kuwait News Agency