China’s foreign minister says Taiwan, Ukraine issues not comparable
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi says the conflict in Ukraine cannot be compared with tensions over Taiwan.
“It should be clear that the Taiwan issue is fundamentally different from the Ukraine issue and there is no comparison between the two,” Wang said on Monday.
Wang said this at a news conference on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Chinese People’s Congress in Beijing.
“The most fundamental difference is that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China’s territory and the Taiwan issue is entirely an internal affair of China, while the Ukraine issue is a dispute between two countries, Russia and Ukraine.
“As we have seen, some people emphasise the principle of sovereignty on the Ukraine issue, but keep undermining China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity on the Taiwan issue, which is a naked double standard,’’ Wang said.
He said the cause of the tensions was the authorities in Taiwan trying to change the status quo and separate the island from China, which had no future.
Wang said that some in the U.S. were supporting Taiwan’s independence, and warned that such actions would plunge Taiwan into a “dangerous situation” and bring “unbearable consequences” to the U.S…
The future of Taiwan, he said, lies in the peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait.
“Taiwan will eventually return to the embrace of the motherland.’’
China regarded the self-governing democratic island republic as part of the People’s Republic and has threatened to take it back by force if it formally declares independence.
The U.S. is committed to Taiwan’s defence capability and supplies it with arms.
Previous U.S. administrations have left open whether they would also come to the island’s aid militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.
U.S. President Joe Biden said in October that the U.S. would have an obligation to do so. (dpa/NAN)
