BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) -China and Taiwan clashed over their competing interpretations of history in an escalating war of words over what Beijing views as provocations from Taiwan’s government, and said it is impossible to “invade” what is already Chinese land.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up military and political pressure over the past five years. China has an especial dislike of Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, calling him a “separatist”.
Lai has since Sunday given two speeches in what will be a series of 10 on “uniting the country”, saying that Taiwan is “of course a country” and China has no legal or historical right to claim it.
Speaking on Wednesday at a regular news briefing in Beijing, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said any “independence provocations” from Lai and his administration will face “resolute countermeasures”.
“Though the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have not yet been fully reunified, the historical and legal fact that compatriots on both sides belong to one China and that both sides’ compatriots are Chinese has never changed,” she said.
Tensions between China and Taiwan, including several rounds of Chinese war games, have raised the possibility Beijing may one day make good on threats to take Taiwan by force which could ignite a regional war.
China’s last war games were in April, and its air force and navy operate around Taiwan on a daily basis, sometimes using dozens of warplanes, according to the island’s defence ministry.
Asked about U.S. comments on Chinese drills strengthening preparations for an attack, Zhu corrected the reporter.
“Taiwan is a part of China; there is no invasion to speak of,” she said.
Lai takes a different view on Taiwan’s status and future.
In a speech late on Tuesday, he said Taiwan’s future can only be decided by its people, democratically, not by a decision by any party or president, and that “Taiwan independence” refers to the island not being a part of the People’s Republic of China.
The defeated Republic of China, founded after the 1911 revolution that brought down the last emperor, fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists, and that remains the island’s formal name.
“How old is the Republic of China? It’s 113 years old, and will be 114 years old this year. The People’s Republic of China? It’s only some 70 years old, right? It’s simple and clear,” Lai said.
This year’s 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two is another sensitive topic, and China has invited old soldiers who fought for the Republic of China to a military parade in Beijing in early September.
Taiwan does not want them to attend, and on Wednesday its defence minister, Wellington Koo, said Beijing was trying to distort history.
“The war of resistance was led and won by the Republic of China, not the People’s Republic of China – this is without a doubt,” he told reporters at parliament.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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