(TibetanReview.net, Feb18’25) – The US State Department has dropped a statement from its website which stated that Washington does not support Taiwan’s independence, sparking anger from China which demanded that the “mistake” be “corrected”. China has also taken strong exception to the fact that Japan has decided to allow Taiwan to be listed as place of origin by people coming from the island under its revised family law.
The so-called “update” to the Taiwan fact sheet displayed on the US State Department website is another example of the US side using the Taiwan question to contain China, and China urges the United States to immediately correct its mistakes, China’s official Xinhua news agency Feb 17 cited the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun as saying.
Guo has maintained that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of it, and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legal government representing the whole of China, adding that it is a prevailing international consensus and basic norm governing international relations, and also a solemn commitment the US has made in the three China-US joint communiqués.
He has accused the US of having gravely backpedalled on its position on Taiwan-related issues, sending a severely wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces.
Guo has continued: “We urge the US to immediately correct its wrongdoings, abide by the one-China principle and three China-US joint communiqués.” He wanted the US side to stop upgrading substantive relations with Taiwan, refrain from assisting Taiwan in expanding its international space, and stop emboldening and supporting “Taiwan independence,” and avoid further severe damage to China-US relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
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Meanwhile, Guo has also demanded that Japan abide by the one-China principle and the spirit of the four political documents between the two countries, and stop playing tricks on the Taiwan question.
He was reacting to reports that Japan was going to revise its family law rules to allow Taiwan, Palestine and other non-national state regions or districts to be listed as a place of origin for people from those places. This means that people coming from Taiwan could now list themselves as being from the self-ruled democratic island, instead of China.
China urges Japan to abide by the one-China principle and the spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan, and stop playing tricks on the Taiwan question, reported Xinhua Feb 17, citing Guo.
Claiming that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory and compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the same Chinese nation, Guo has maintained that the Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair that brooks no foreign interference.
Accusing Japan of having committed aggression against Taiwan and exercised colonial rule over the island, Guo has argued that Tokyo bears serious historical responsibilities to the Chinese people, and should act all the more prudently on the Taiwan question.