Beijing fumes as US Secretary of State says Taiwan not part of China

DHARAMSALA, Nov 16: The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that “Taiwan has not been a part of China,” days after he warned that the US is “not finished yet” when it comes to getting tough on China as he declared the Chinese Communist Party a “Marxist-Leninist monster.” 

“Taiwan has not been a part of China. That was recognized with the work that the [former US president Ronald] Reagan administration did to lay out the policies that the United States has adhered to now for three-and-a-half decades,” the Taipei Times quoted Pompeo as saying in a telephone interview with the Hugh Hewitt Show, an American radio talk show.

While the Taiwanese government under the independence-leaning President Tsai Ing Win has thanked the top US diplomat for his support, it has infuriated Beijing warning the US of countermeasures.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Joanne Ou has thanked the Pompeo for his statement and said that “the Republic of China is a sovereign state, not part of the People’s Republic of China, which is a fact as well as the status quo.” 

The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has declared Taiwan an inalienable part of China and accused Pompeo of further damaging ties between Washington and Beijing while speaking before the press in Beijing.

“We solemnly tell Pompeo and his ilk, that any behaviour that undermines China’s core interests and interferes with China’s domestic affairs will be met with a resolute counterattack by China,” Wang Wenbin has said without elaborating.

Beijing claims self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as its own and views it as a wayward province to be reunified with China by force if necessary.