Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday expressed outrage at China’s move to accept messages of sympathy from countries around the world. deadly earthquake It struck eastern Taiwan on Wednesday morning.
Even as Taiwanese rescue workers are still working to rescue earthquake victims and restore power and transportation to the affected areas, China’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Geng Shuang has confirmed that the Chinese government truly “owns” the area. I decided it was a good time to reassert myself. ” Being a democratically ruled self-governing island, all condolences should be directed to the Chinese Communist Party.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang listens to questions during a press conference in Beijing on November 28, 2019. (WANG ZHAO/AFP via Getty Images)
Geng is attendance At the United Nations Conference on Children’s Rights, another participant mentioned the Taiwan earthquake. Geng said the government was “concerned” about the damage caused to “China’s Taiwan” and was ready to provide assistance.
“We would like to thank the international community for its sympathy and expression of concern,” he said.
This was too much for Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), which issued a statement saying it “solemnly condemns China’s shameless use of the Taiwan earthquake to conduct international recognition operations.”
The Foreign Ministry said Geng’s comments showed that China “does not have goodwill toward Taiwan.”
Taiwan and China were awkward exchange On Wednesday, the Taiwan Mainland Affairs Office rejected an offer for earthquake assistance from the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing.
“This morning, we noticed that the Taiwan Affairs Office on the mainland has expressed concern about the earthquake off the coast of Hualien. We very much appreciate the Taiwanese side’s concerns, but there is no need for the mainland side to cooperate with disaster relief. ” said the Taiwan office.
time thursday magazine I remembered After the devastating 1999 Taiwan earthquake, China and Taiwan were said to have had relatively tense exchanges. In fact, “lingering bitterness” from the recent earthquake may be one reason why the Mainland Affairs Office has been so unfriendly toward the Chinese side.
Taiwanese felt China was using the 1999 earthquake to “improperly” assert its claims to Taiwan, and also accused China of delaying international emergency relief flights and transportation. The then-Chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council accused China of “taking political action at the expense of one country’s disaster.”
“Aid from China is always conditional,” said Jia Ian Chong, associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. time.
China has decided to push Taiwan further away. launch Tuesday saw another large and intimidating air and naval patrol of Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). This is the largest scale yet in China’s exhausting “gray zone” invasion in 2024.
This was announced by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense. “As of 6 a.m. today, 30 PLA (People’s Liberation Army) aircraft and nine PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy) vessels were detected operating around Taiwan. 20 of them were located in the northern part of Taiwan, along the Central Line, The aircraft entered the Southwest ADIZ (Southwest Air Defense Identification Zone).
China’s latest show of force came shortly after dictator Xi Jinping spoke by phone with President Joe Biden for the first time in nearly two years.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden take a walk after a meeting at the Filloli Estate in California, U.S., on November 15, 2023 (Li Xueren/Xinhua via Getty Images).
White House read out loud During the phone conversation, Biden “stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Mr. Xi apparently decided to respond by sending swarms of warships and fighter jets into Taiwan’s ADIZ.
