Taiwan question Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

The Chinese mainland on Wednesday lashed out at a series of recent moves by Taiwan's secessionists Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities and the US over arms sales, trade deals, political visits to the US and attempts to obstruct cross-Straits exchanges, adding that such collusions would only push Taiwan island into a more dangerous situation.

Experts said that it is the US and DPP colluding to challenge mainland's red line that has made the situation grimmer and more complicated. And the mainland will continue to take effective measures and will not have any illusions or expectations from the US.

In response to the recent delivery of US FIM-92 Stinger missiles to the Taiwan island, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council, said that by playing the "Taiwan card" and trying to turn Taiwan into a "porcupine," the US is in essence "destroying" and "damaging" the island, as it is by no means serving the interests of Taiwan compatriots by treating them as "cannon fodder." 

The DPP authorities' stubbornness to seek "independence" by relying on the US will only push Taiwan into a more dangerous situation, Zhu warned. 

In terms of the first part of trade agreement recently reached by the US and Taiwan authorities under the "US-Taiwan Initiative of 21st Century Trade," Zhu stressed that China is firmly opposed to the negotiation of any agreement of sovereign connotation or official nature between diplomatic partners and China's Taiwan region, "and this position is consistent and clear." 

Zhu said the so-called agreement is an unequal political deal under the guise of trade and economic cooperation, costing the interests of enterprises and people in Taiwan to curry favor with Washington. 

Zhu also expressed strong opposition of a US trip made by You Si-kun, head of the "legislative" authorities on the island of Taiwan. "We firmly oppose any form of official exchanges between the US and China's Taiwan region, oppose any form of collusion between the DPP authorities and external forces."

Wang Jianmin, a senior cross-Straits expert at Minnan Normal University in East China's Fujian Province, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the escalation of US-DPP collusion in military, political, and economic areas is the root cause of the increasingly tense situation in the Taiwan Straits.

Two amphibious landing ships of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy were spotted in waters off the eastern side of the island of Taiwan on Friday. Later on Saturday, a PLA Navy flotilla led by the aircraft carrier Shandong sailed through the Taiwan Straits, which sent a strong warning to secessionists and external interference.

The mainland will continue to take strong measures to counteract in political, military and economic aspects, Wang added. 

On May 19, Chinese mainland authorities announced the allowing of travel agencies to resume group tours for Taiwan residents visiting the mainland after a three-year freeze due to COVID, however, the DPP authorities said it would not lift the ban on tourist groups from Taiwan visiting the mainland. Zhu said the move would only hurt the interests of the Taiwan people and the tourism industry and would not be popular.

The US is dragging its allies to the Taiwan question to obstruct China's reunification process, and the mainland will make all kinds of preparations to deal with the situation, Wang said.

"The US is already a country with bankrupt political credibility. They say they want to interact with China, but they have never stopped undermining China's core interests on the Taiwan question," Wang said. "The US may want to use interactive exchanges to hide their substantial progress in containing China."

China has no expectations or illusions about the US, Wang said. The US defines the countries it does not like as "rogue states," and in fact the most politically rogue country in the world is the US, Wang noted.