Chen Binhua, the spokesperson from the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is part of China. This cannot be changed by anyone's empty rhetoric or political manipulations, said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, on Friday.

Chen made these remarks in response to Taiwan regional leader Lai Ching-te's recent claims during an interview with Agence France‑Presse (AFP), in which Lai once again peddled the fallacy that the two sides of the Taiwan Straits "are not subordinate to each other" and advocated other erroneous claims, including supporting Taiwan's semiconductor industry to invest in Japan, the US and Europe.

Lai is stubbornly entrenched in his "Taiwan independence" stance and obsessed with a confrontational mentality and the so-called "democracy versus authoritarianism" narrative, Chen said.

Lai has also repeatedly distorted and challenged the historical and legal fact that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one China, continuously stoked cross‑Straits confrontation, and vainly attempted to seek "Taiwan independence" by relying on external forces and by military means, according to Chen.

Lai would even go so far as to hand over the property and livelihoods built up by Taiwan compatriots over generations to external forces, gravely undermining the interests and well‑being of Taiwan compatriots, the spokesperson said.

Lai is the source of chaos escalating cross‑Straits tensions and the root cause endangering peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, Chen noted.

The spokesperson also said that when and how the Taiwan question will be resolved is entirely a matter for the Chinese people themselves, and external forces have no right to interfere.

In the face of the overwhelming trend that the two sides of the Taiwan Straits will and must achieve reunification, and in the face of the resolve and will of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese compatriots to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, any attempt to split the motherland and resist reunification is nothing but sheer fantasy, Chen said.


Global Times