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China accused Taiwan President Lai Ching-te of ’escalating hostility and confrontation with sinister intentions’ after he recently remarked how it is ‘impossible’ for China to become Taiwan’s motherland as Taiwan has older political roots read more
 "China accuses Taiwan President Lai of escalating tension with 'sinister intentions'")
China has accused Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te of peddling a theory that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are two separate countries. Source: REUTERS.
China has accused Taiwan President Lai Ching-te of “escalating hostility and confrontation with sinister intentions.”
The statement of the Chinese government came ahead of his main national speech Lai will deliver in Taipei on Thursday that could set off a Chinese military response.
The day marks the overthrow of the last Chinese dynasty in 1911 and the ushering in of the Republic of China.
The defeated republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists. The Republic of China remains Taiwan’s formal name.
‘Old wine in a new bottle’
China, which claims democratically government Taiwan as its own territory, calls Lai a “separatist”.
Reacting to the comments Lai gave over the weekend on how it is “impossible” for China to become Taiwan’s motherland as Taiwan has older political roots, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said he was confusing right from wrong.
In a statement released late on Tuesday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office claimed that Lai continues to peddle a theory the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are two separate countries.
“Lai Ching-te’s Taiwan independence fallacy is just old wine in a new bottle, and again exposes his obstinate stance on Taiwan independence and his sinister intentions of escalating hostility and confrontation,” the statement further stated.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s China policy making Mainland Affairs Council said it was an objective fact that since 1949 the People’s Republic of China had never ruled the island.
“The Taiwan Affairs Office’s remarks have made Taiwan’s people see clearly that the Chinese communists regard themselves as the sole legitimate government of China and simply do not allow any room for the survival of the Republic of China,” it further said.
China military drills likely near Taiwan
A report by Reuters quoted Taiwanese officials as saying that China may launch military drills near Taiwan in response to Lai’s speech as a pretext to pressure the island to accept its sovereignty claims.
With inputs from Reuters.
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English (US) ·