Taiwan Or Twang, China Sulks As No One Seeks Its Permission To Visit These Places
The three senators, Tammy Duckworth, Dan Sullivan and Christopher Coons, visited Taipei for around three hours on Sunday where they met President Tsai Ing-wen and announced the donation of 750,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses for the island
China has been expressing its STRONG OPPOSITION to visits to Tawang in the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh, by Indian and foreign dignitaries. This time China’s Defence Ministry expressed its strong opposition to a trip and use of the military aircraft by a group of American Senators to Taipei.
Just as Indians do not bother about the Chinese tantrums on Arunachal, the Americans too do not care about these Chinese “ protests “. After all Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and Taiwan is a free independent country.
China’s Defence Ministry on Tuesday denounced a brief weekend visit by three US senators to Chinese-claimed Taiwan on a US military aircraft as a “vile political provocation” that was irresponsible and dangerous.
The three senators, Tammy Duckworth, Dan Sullivan and Christopher Coons, visited Taipei for around three hours on Sunday where they met President Tsai Ing-wen and announced the donation of 750,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses for the island.
Unusually, they travelled on a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster-III freighter, rather than an unmarked private jet as is generally the case for senior US visitors.
China’s Defence Ministry expressed its strong opposition to the trip and use of the military aircraft.
“The US senators visited Taiwan by military plane, using the Taiwan issue to engage in a ‘political show’, challenging the one-China principle and trying to achieve the so-called goal of ‘using Taiwan to control China'”, it said.
“This was an extremely vile political provocation”.
Beijing keeps claiming that the democratically ruled island is part of “one China” and routinely denounces visits by foreign officials as an interference in the country’s internal affairs.
The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is its strongest international backer and main source of arms, to China’s anger. Even India has started up grading its diplomatic and economic ties with Democratic Republic of Taiwan.
China believes Tsai is a separatist bent on declaring independence. She says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name.
The ministry said the trip damaged the basis of Sino-US ties and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and was “extremely irresponsible and very dangerous”.
The United States must immediately stop any kind of official exchanges or military relations with Taiwan, it added.
“If anyone dares to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will resolutely fight head-on at all costs and resolutely defend the country’s unity and territorial integrity”.
