Any attempts by Taiwan to rely on external forces in its quest for independence will be severely punished and will certainly fail, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Friday.
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Earlier, the head of the Taiwan administration, Lai Qingde, visited the Marshall Islands and Tuvalui Palau. During the trip, Lai Qingde made transit stops in the American Hawaiian Islands and the island of Guam, which is also a US territory.
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“The People’s Liberation Army’s sacred duty is to protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity, protect the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, and protect the common interests of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait,” Wu Qian said, as quoted on the department’s website.
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In response to a question about whether the People’s Liberation Army will conduct exercises around Taiwan in connection with Lai Qingde’s stops in the United States, Wu Qian noted that China independently decides whether and when to conduct exercises based on its own needs and the situation of the struggle.
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“Any actions that attempt to rely on external forces to achieve independence or use military force to achieve independence will certainly be severely punished and end in failure,” Wu Qian added.
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The Central News Agency previously reported that Lai Qingde emphasized the “rock-solid ties” between the island and the United States during his speech at a banquet in Guam. In addition, he had a telephone conversation with former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. Commenting on the trip, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that China calls on the United States to stop pandering to separatist forces in Taiwan.
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Official relations between the Chinese central government and its island province were interrupted in 1949 after the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek, defeated in the civil war with the Chinese Communist Party, moved to Taiwan. Business and informal contacts between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the parties began to contact through non-governmental organizations – the Beijing Association for the Development of Cross-Strait Relations (ATR) and the Taipei Cross-Taiwan Strait Exchange Foundation (TSF).
