By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi's (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a "troublemaker" in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace.
Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People's Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country.
The "return" of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people's resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was "doomed to fail," he said, claiming that the Cairo Declaration, Potsdam Declaration, Japanese Instrument of Surrender and UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 determined Taiwan's status.
"The Taiwan problem is a part of China's internal affairs and at the very core of its interests. This red line mus t not be trampled on," Wang said.
He added that other countries recognize Taiwan as part of China and oppose "Taiwanese independence," claiming that "unification aligns with international expectations," and that "it is a process that is inevitable."
In Taipei, Lin said that "under the Republic of China [ROC], Taiwan has always been an independent sovereign country, and neither the ROC nor the PRC [People's Republic of China] are subordinate to each other."
"Whether based on historical facts, objective reality or international law, Taiwan's sovereignty has never belonged to the PRC," he said, adding that only Taiwanese have the right to decide the nation's future.
Lin said that the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951 — a formal agreement signed between Japan and the Allied Powers after WWII — has replaced wartime declarations.
Taiwan's liberalization and democratization, which began in the 1980s, and the nation's first democratic presidential election in 1996, have established the ROC as the only legal government representing Taiwanese, he said, adding that the events have consolidated the "status quo" of cross-strait relations.
Exercises conducted by the Chinese military in th e Taiwan Strait in the past few years have severely affected regional peace and stability, not Taiwan, he said.
Calling China a "troublemaker" in the international community and a "saboteur of cross-strait peace," Lin urged Beijing to respect Taiwan's existence as an independent nation, and work collaboratively to ensure peace and stability in the region.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) called on the international community to condemn China's unilateral attempts to change the "status quo" through coercion, military threats and the arbitrary intimidation of other countries.
Separately, in response to Wang's remarks, the Mainland Affairs Council vowed to uphold the freedom and democracy of the ROC.
"We believe that maintaining the status quo is in the best interests of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait," it said.
Additional reporting by Chen Fu-yu
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