Mainland says Taiwan shut itself out of intl aviation conference

The prerequisite for Taiwan to participate in any international activity is adherence to the one-China policy, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday.

Spokesperson Lu Kang’s remarks came after the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an organization under the framework of the United Nations, decided not to invite Taiwan to participate in its assembly in Canada, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Only sovereign states have the right to participate in institutions and activities within the UN framework, Lu said while answering questions.

Taiwan, as an inalienable part of China, has no right to participate in the ICAO assembly, he added.

On the same day, spokesman for the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office Ma Xiaoguang said that the reason that Taiwan cannot participate in the ICAO assembly is that Taiwan’s current Democratic Progressive Party adminis- tration refuses to recognize the 1992 Consensus, which endorses the one-China policy, according to Xinhua.

Lee Ta-wei, head of the Taiwan “foreign affairs department,” earlier on Friday said that the department did not receive the invitation from the ICAO, and charged that it was due to “unreasonable suppression” from the Chinese mainland, the Taiwan-based news website ettoday.net reported.

Lee said he felt “extremely out of sorts” about the Chinese mainland.

“The international society recognizes China’s legal position in representing China, and Taiwan itself has no qualification to participate in international affairs and activities for sovereign states,” Lü Cuncheng, a Beijing-based Taiwan studies expert, told the Global Times on Friday.

Civil aviation authorities from Taiwan were invited to send staff as non-voting delegates to attend the ICAO Assembly’s 38th session in 2013, after the mainland and Taiwan exchanged views on this issue, according to Xinhua.

The DPP authorities should rethink what allowed Taiwan to attend the assembly in 2013 and what made it not in 2016, instead of accusing the Chinese mainland and misleading the public, Ma said.

“The policy of Chinese mainland to Taiwan did not change since Tsai Ing-wen came to power, so the retrogression of the cross-Straits relations and the narrowing of international space could be blamed on the DPP’s behavior and attitude,” Lü said.