BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) – China will not commit to giving up its use of force against Taiwan, but this is aimed at external interference and a small number of separatists, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said on Wednesday.
China, which rules Taiwan democratically, staged large-scale exercises around the island on Monday in warning of “separatist acts” following Taiwan President Lai Ching-de’s National Day speech.
“We are willing to work for peaceful unification with utmost sincerity and effort,” Chen Binhua, spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
But we will never promise to give up the use of force,” he said.
But this is aimed at interference by “external forces,” referring to the United States and its allies, and by a minority of Taiwanese separatists who are not the majority of Taiwan’s people, Chen said.
Taiwan’s government has dismissed China’s claims of sovereignty, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide its future.
Tsai Ming-yan, secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Agency, told reporters in Taipei on Wednesday morning that China’s exercises had backfired, drawing international criticism, especially from the United States.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s military training had a negative impact in that it made the international community more supportive of Taiwan,” he said.
