SHANGHAI, China – Criticizing China over Taiwan could have harmful penalties, Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned Friday, as he insisted Beijing is a “growing force for peace and justice”.
Two weeks in the past, China launched three days of army workouts round Taiwan — simulating focused strikes and a blockade of the island — in response to a gathering between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“Recently, there has been some absurd rhetoric accusing China… of unilaterally changing the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, through force or coercion, and of disrupting peace and stability across the Strait,” Qin stated as he gave the keynote speech at a discussion board on Chinese modernization.
“Such claims go against basic common sense on international relations and historical justice,” he instructed the viewers in Shanghai.
“The logic is absurd and the consequences dangerous.”
China claims Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to convey the island beneath its management someday.
“The Taiwan question is the core of the core interests of China,” Qin continued.
“We will never back down in face of any act that undermines China’s sovereignty and security. Those who play with fire on Taiwan will eventually get themselves burned.”
Qin will go to the Philippines later, per week after the largest-ever joint US-Philippines army workouts within the South China Sea, one other space of territorial dispute for Beijing.
The remarks on Taiwan got here in the direction of the top of a speech wherein Qin repeatedly emphasised China’s peaceable intentions.
“We have the best record in abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN charter, international law, and the basic norms of international relations,” he stated.
Pointing out China’s function in serving to to convey a couple of latest reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, he additionally reiterated Beijing’s positioning of itself as a mediator within the Ukraine battle.
“China is not adding fuel to the fire or taking advantage of the situation,” he stated, including it was pushing peace talks to de-escalate the disaster as a substitute.
“Facts have proved that China’s march toward modernization is a growing force for peace and justice.”
Other audio system on the Lanting Forum included Brazil’s former president Dilma Rousseff and The Gambia’s Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara.
“China has put forward a different path to modernization,” stated Rousseff.
She emphasised that there was no “one size fits all” mannequin for growth, a message echoed repeatedly all through the discussion board’s opening ceremony. — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com