Renewed diplomatic tension between China and the United States. Beijing expressed on Friday May 1 "its strong indignation and its firm opposition" after the American mission to the United Nations brought, on Twitter, "clear support to the region of Taiwan to participate in the UN".

It is a "serious violation" of "the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of China" and this tweet "seriously interferes in the internal affairs of China", underlines the statement of the Chinese diplomatic mission to the United Nations.

"There is only one China in the world. The government of the People's Republic of China is the only legal government representing the whole of China and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China," the statement said. adding that the principle of one China is "strictly observed" within the Organization.

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Allow "all voices to speak"

The tweet from the US mission to the UN, posted online early Friday, said the UN was founded 75 years ago to allow "all voices to speak." "Banning Taiwan from the United Nations is an affront not only to the proud Taiwanese people, but also to the principles of the United Nations," he added.

In the process, the American mission had retweeted a series of messages emphasizing that Taiwan's response to the Covid-19 pandemic had been a model for the world and that the island deserved its place in the World Organization Health (WHO). 

Relations between WHO and Taiwan were strained long before the pandemic started, but have deteriorated in the past three months. The island was excluded from the WHO, in which it enjoyed observer status until 2016, the year in which President Tsai Ing-wen came to power, who refuses to recognize the principle of the unity of Taiwan and mainland China within the same country.

The tweet of the American mission is against a background of growing tension between the United States and China, Washington accusing Beijing of being at the origin of the spread of the virus and of having concealed information about the reality of the danger for the rest of the world.

With AFP

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