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CHINA-TAIWAN-POLITICS
Beijing says no one can stop Taiwan ‘reunification’
BEIJING, Oct 21, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – China’s defence minister made an
uncompromising call Monday for the “reunification” of Taiwan with the
mainland, telling a high level defence forum that the process was something
“no force” could stop.
Self-ruled Taiwan is viewed by China as a renegade province which will
eventually be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary, after the two
sides split in 1949 after a civil war.
China will not stop in its efforts towards “realising the complete
reunification of the motherland,” Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe told
defence ministers and officials from across Asia at the Xiangshan Forum in
Beijing.
“China is the only big country in the world that has not yet achieved
complete reunification,” he said.
“It is something that nobody and that no force can stop.”
Relations between Taipei and Beijing have deteriorated since the 2016
election of President Tsai Ing-wen, whose party refuses to accept that Taiwan
is part of “one China”.
Since then China has poached a number of political allies from Taipei,
leaving it with a dwindling number of nations which recognise its government.
Wei said China wanted to promote peaceful cross-strait relations, but that
it would never allow “Taiwan separatists to make reckless moves, and we will
never sit by and watch outside forces… interfere.”
“Engaging in separatism can only be a dead end,” he said.
His comments come just weeks after a huge military parade in Beijing to
mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The parade showed off some of the country’s latest high-tech military
hardware in a defiant show of strength, including new ballistic missiles,
supersonic drones and next-generation battlefield tanks.
Wei also repeated Beijing’s claim that the Diaoyu Islands in the East
China Sea and disputed islands in the South China Sea were an “inherent” part
of China’s territory, adding: “We can’t lose a single inch of the land left
by our ancestors.”
Beijing claims most of the South China Sea — but the waters are also
contested by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan — and the
uninhabited Diaoyu islands, which are also claimed by Japan and known as the
Senkakus.
Despite its uncompromising territorial claims, Wei insisted that China’s
military ambitions were not aggressive.
“China’s development does not pose a threat to any country,” he said.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1404 hrs