The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rejected claims by China’s foreign ministry that Beijing would “exert utmost efforts to realize ‘peaceful reunification’ with Taiwan,” and condemned Beijing for again distorting UN Resolution 2758.
On the sidelines of China’s “two sessions” annual policy-setting meeting, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) told reporters that “the only reference to the Taiwan region in the UN is Taiwan, Province of China.”
“Taiwan is never a country, not in the past, and never in the future. To clamor for Taiwanese independence is to split the country, to support Taiwanese independence is to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” he said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) on Monday said that UN Resolution 2758 adopted in 1971 “made it clear that there is only one China, Taiwan is not a country and it is part of China.”
“China’s position is consistent and clear. We stay committed to the ‘one China’ principle and the ‘1992 consensus.’ We stand ready to work with the greatest sincerity and exert utmost efforts to achieve peaceful reunification,” she said.
The so-called “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
MOFA yesterday rejected China’s claims, saying that “the Republic of China (ROC) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are not subordinate to each other, and Taiwan has never been ruled by the PRC.”
“Any claim that misrepresents Taiwan’s sovereign status cannot change the internationally recognized status quo in the Taiwan Strait,” it added.
The ministry also reiterated that UN Resolution 2758 only decided the representation of China in the UN and did not mention Taiwan.
The resolution “did not recognize Taiwan as part of the PRC, nor did it authorize the PRC to represent Taiwan in the UN,” it said.
“The MOFA sternly informs China to recognize the fact that the ROC, Taiwan, is an independent sovereign country. Taiwan has never been a part of the PRC, and the status quo is that the two sides are not subordinate to each other, which is also the objective fact accepted by the international community,” it said.
The ministry urged members of the international community to see through what it called China’s distortion of the UN Resolution 2758, intended to mislead them to believe the Taiwan issue is China’s internal affair.
The ministry also urged them to explicitly express their opposition toward China’s repeated misinterpretation of the resolution, which it said is intended to maliciously change the “status quo.”
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