BCN Indonesia – China on Taiwan: ‘External interference’ won’t be tolerated, China underscored its commitment Saturday to its claim to Taiwan, telling world leaders that anyone who gets in the way of its determination to reunify with the self-governing island would be “crushed by the wheels of history.”
The language was forceful but, for Chinese leadership, well within the realm of normal.
“Only when China is fully reunified can there be true peace across the Taiwan Strait,” Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, said at the U.N. General Assembly. He said Beijing would “take the most forceful steps to oppose external interference.”
China vehemently defends its claim on Taiwan, which separated from the mainland after a 1949 civil war and now functions with its own government. A recent visit by the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, markedly ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The language, while pointed, reflected China’s usual vehemence about the island; it’s claim rarely goes unmentioned in major international speeches. Taiwan is a core issue of China policy, and Wang’s appearance — instead of his boss, Chinese leader Xi Jinping — was a signal that the speech was not necessarily a major one.
“The PRC government is the sole government representing all of China,” Wang said, referring to China’s formal name, the People’s Republic of China. “The one-China principle has become a basic norm in international relations.”
