The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday condemned “untruthful statements” from Moscow two days after Russian First Deputy Chief of Staff Sergey Kiriyenko seems to have described Taiwan as a “non-negotiable” part of China.
Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) made the comment at a routine news briefing in Taipei, adding: “Taiwan and China are two mutually non-subordinating governments.”
An article published on Sunday commemorating Russia Day in the Russian newspaper Izvestia, seemingly written by Kiriyenko, first deputy chief of staff to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that “the Chinese Taiwan problem is not a negotiable issue.”
The Multimedia Information Center Izvestia, which oversees the newspaper and other Izvestia outlets, on Monday denied ever publishing the article, saying it was the result of a hacker attack, Deutsche Welle reported.
The article has since been removed from the paper’s Web site.
Drawing a comparison between the Russia-Ukraine war to China’s claims over Taiwan, as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s claims over islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the article expressed support for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) Global Security Initiative, saying the West should “stop interfering with the internal affairs of other peoples and governments.”
The creation of a US-led military alliance in the Indo-Pacific region is a threat to Russia’s national security, it added.
The Institute for the Study of War, a nonprofit policy research organization, said the article was likely published early by mistake.
The outlet probably had the story in reserve and intended to use it when Russia has annexed the Donbas region, it said.
It also cited Kremlin sources as saying that Kiriyenko has been tapped to lead the Russian district that would encompass Donbas and other occupied regions.
Ou condemned the “distortion of facts and insult to Taiwanese sovereignty,” saying that “the Chinese government has never ruled Taiwan and only a government elected by Taiwanese can be the legitimate representative of that people in international relations.”
“Beijing’s efforts to spread the fictitious narrative that Taiwan is part of China and its campaign of intimation through the deployment of warplanes and warships only deepens the antipathy of the Taiwanese,” she added.
Already, Beijing’s actions have raised alarm and drawn condemnation from Japan, the US and the EU while causing heightened awareness of the threat China represents to freedom and peace, she said.
Taiwan continues to safeguard freedom and democracy as the most crucial asset in its opposition to China’s totalitarian regime, she said.
“This government calls on like-minded international partners to join forces in defending the shared values of freedom and democracy from the Sino-Russian authoritarian alliance, which poses a grave threat to global freedoms and peace,” she said.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
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