China Daily Global Edition (USA)
China vows ‘forceful’ moves on sovereignty
China’s military will take “forceful measures” to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity if anyone wants to breach China’s bottom line on the Taiwan question, Beijing’s top envoy in Washington said on Tuesday.
Ambassador Qin Gang made the remarks at a reception on Tuesday marking the 95th anniversary of the founding of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which was established on Aug 1, 1927.
His comments came amid reports that Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi may visit Taiwan.
Qin emphasized that the Taiwan question remains the most important and sensitive core issue in China-US relations.
He noted that the Chinese government values peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, and has been making the “utmost efforts” for peaceful reunification, but “Taiwan independence” separatist forces and their activities pose the biggest threat to cross-Straits peace and stability.
“If anyone tries to separate Taiwan from China, if anyone wants to challenge China’s bottom line, the Chinese military will take forceful measures to firmly safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said at the reception.
The gathering was attended by about 300 guests, including representatives of the US military, the State Department, embassies in the US, military attaches and overseas Chinese.
Asof Tuesday,the White House and USDepartmentof of State Defense both both said said that the that trip the has trip yet has to yet be to confirmed. be confirmed.
“What we have said on this still stands. It’s my understanding that the speaker’s office has not announced any travel, and our approach to Taiwan has not changed in any way,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a briefing on Tuesday when asked to comment on Pelosi’s potential trip.
US President Joe Biden said on July 20 that the US military believes it is “not a good idea” for Pelosi to visit the island at the moment.
At the reception, Qin said that maintaining the stability of militaryrelations is essential to China-US relations.
Since April, the two militaries have had three high-level exchanges, laying a good foundation for further interactions, according to Qin.
Those interactions included a meeting in June between China’s State Councilor and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Singapore, where Wei warned about the US’ “illusions” on the Taiwan question.
Qin said, “It’s hoped that the two sides will make joint efforts to strengthen communication, build military mutual trust, manage risks and crises, and advance cooperation in areas of shared interests, such as counterterrorism, peacekeeping, military medicine, and military environmental protection, so as to contribute to the stable development of our bilateral, including military-to-military, relations.”
He also said China is firmly committed to the path of peaceful development and has a defense policy that is defensive in nature, and that the Chinese military has always been a champion and contributor to world peace.
Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, China has never initiated any war or conflict, and has never occupied a single inch of another country’s territory, Qin said.
China has sent almost 50,000 troops on 25 peacekeeping operations, and sent over 120 vessels in escort missions for more than 7,000 Chinese and foreign ships, making the country the largest troop contributor among permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
China is also the second-largest financial contributor of UN peacekeeping budget, according to the ambassador.
Qin noted that this year marks the 50th anniversary of US President Richard Nixon’s visit to China, and 50 years later, the China-US relationship is at a new crossroads.
He said that some people asserted that China and the US cannot avoid the “Thucydides Trap” — a clash when a major power feels threatened by the emergence of a new power — and the “tragedy of major-power politics”, while others said that the two countries will enter into a new Cold War.
“With the lessons of major-country conflict and confrontation still fresh in our memory, we should say a categorical ‘no’ to these assertions, and jointly explore a way of peaceful coexistence of two major countries with different social systems, development paths, history and cultures on this planet,” Qin said.
The ongoing contest to decide the next UK prime minister and head of the Conservative Party has finally entered its final round. The choice, which now goes to a vote of about 160,000 rank-and-file members of the party, is between Elizabeth Truss, the current foreign secretary, and Rishi Sunak, former finance minister.
The United Kingdom is mired in a mess of pressing domestic problems after the shambolic showmanship-over-policies that was the defining feature of Boris Johnson’s scandal-minting time in office. One of which, the so-called Partygate scandal, led to the author of the investigating report criticizing him for “serious failures of leadership and judgment” — a damning indictment of his suitability to be head of the country given it was a civil service report.
Demonstrating that they have a firm grasp of the problems confronting the country and have a clear understanding of what needs to be done to remedy them, both Sunak and Truss have laid out clear plans of action that they will pursue if they get the keys to 10 Downing Street.
Except that their plans are almost identical — and equally absurd. They are going to get tough on China.
In their fiery head-to-head television debate, UK-based Financial Times said, the two candidates “clashed over who would take the toughest stance on China in the battle to become Britain’s next prime minister”.
Sunak claimed that “China is a threat to our national security, a threat to our economic security” with Truss responding by saying “I’m delighted that you’ve come round to my way of thinking”. Her spokesperson had previously said that she had strengthened the UK’s position on China as foreign secretary and she promised to be even tougher if she becomes the prime minister.
The two candidates even accused each other of “being too soft” on China; Sunak because as chancellor of the exchequer he was planning a UK-China economic and finance conference for the first time since 2019, Truss because she held a conference at a Confucius Institute in the UK in 2014, in which she politely wished the institute the “very best of luck”.
While their words show they both have a clear grasp of what the ideologically-driven party puppet masters expect of them, being Washington-lite on China will not resolve the cost-of-living crisis in the UK or the Northern Ireland Protocol question or any of the other immediate issues that will confront the winner on becoming leader of the country.
Over the seven years since they celebrated what was hailed as the start of a golden era for their relations, the two countries have been on different trajectories with the UK sinking into the morass of its self-inflicted sufferings and China continuing to make fresh development progress.
There might be many other reasons for this, but one key factor is that the UK has been completely enthralled by the United States. The UK has paid a heavy price for this in terms of its previously flourishing relationship with China.
The soured relationship with China is one of the real issues confronting the UK. And it is one for which Sunak and Truss both have the wrong answer.