China strongly protested the United States in connection with the statement by US President Joe Biden that he was ready to use military force to protect Taiwan if necessary.

This was stated at a briefing by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.

“China expresses strong dissatisfaction and strong disagreement with the US statement.

Taiwan is an integral part of the territory of the People's Republic of China, the Taiwan issue is a purely internal affair of China, and no external interference is allowed,” the diplomat said.

He stressed that on issues of territorial integrity and sovereignty, Beijing does not make any concessions and compromises and has the ability to protect its interests.

"We urge the US side to properly abide by the One China principle and the provisions of the three Sino-US joint communiqués, and stick to the important commitment of not supporting the so-called Taiwan independence," Wang said.

Beijing also recommends that Washington be very careful in its comments on the Taiwan issue and not send false signals so as to prevent the situation in the Taiwan Strait from deteriorating and causing serious damage to Sino-US relations, the Foreign Ministry spokesman added.

Resonance note

Recall, Joe Biden on May 23, during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, following the talks in Tokyo, expressed support for Taiwan.

In particular, he answered in the affirmative to a journalist's question whether the White House was ready to deploy troops to provide assistance to Taiwan if necessary.

"Yes.

We made such a commitment,” Biden said, without specifying what that commitment was.

At the same time, he acknowledged that the United States agreed with the "one China" policy.

However, the President stressed, this does not mean that Taiwan's status will be changed by force.

  • US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida

  • AP

  • © Evan Vucci

“The idea that it (Taiwan. -

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) can be captured by force is simply unacceptable.

This will destabilize the entire region.

This can be compared with what happened in Ukraine,” said the head of the White House.

He also advised Beijing to pay attention to the situation in Ukraine and Russia, pointing to the sanctions that Moscow faced today after the announcement of a special operation to protect Donbass.

“We remain committed to maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and also intend to prevent the status quo from changing unilaterally ... They (China. -

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) are already playing with fire, flying up so close (to Taiwan. -

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) and doing all these exercises,” Biden said.

The White House spokesman said that the US policy towards Taiwan has not changed.

Washington still adheres to the policy of "one China" and at the same time the obligation fixed in the law "On relations with Taiwan" - to supply the island with military means for self-defense.

This is not the first time American politicians have tried to draw parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan.

In particular, US Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs Jessica Lewis said at a hearing in the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on May 12 that Washington "needs to learn lessons from the situation with Ukraine and apply them to Taiwan."

"The United States is committed to ensuring that Taiwan has all the necessary means to defend itself," she said.

In China, any attempts by the US to touch on the topic of Taiwan always react quite sharply.

Thus, the head of the office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC Central Committee), Politburo member Yang Jiechi, in a telephone conversation with US National Security Assistant Jake Sullivan on May 19, said that if the American side persistently strives to play the "Taiwan card" , this will exacerbate the situation even more.

“China will certainly take decisive measures to protect its sovereignty and security, we will keep our word ... Any actions that, for selfish reasons, damage the fundamental and long-term interests of the countries of the Asia-Pacific region are doomed to failure.

Any attempts to create factions or organize a splitting confrontation will not be successful either,” he said.

Provoking conflict

U.S. establishment comments about territories China considers its own are aimed at provoking Beijing, experts say.

“Obviously, there is no direct threat to Taiwan now, and the PRC has never stated that they are going to launch any military operation.

However, the United States is interested in making China an aggressive country, and therefore is gradually pushing it into admitting the possibility of using force against the island, ”said Alexei Maslov, director of the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, in an interview with RT.

At the same time, he noted the incorrectness of Washington's attempts to draw parallels between the situations in Taiwan and Ukraine.

“Taiwan and Ukraine have a different nature of conflict.

Taiwan has never expressed any negative and obviously Nazi slogans against China, so the situations are absolutely different.

Moreover, China decided a long time ago that the Taiwan problem would be solved gradually, through peaceful reunification.

The United States, apparently, is trying to impose on them a “fast track” option in order to drag China into a long-term conflict and thereby weaken it,” the analyst explained.

  • Taiwanese military

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  • © Chiang Ying-ying

In turn, Alexander Lukin, director of the Center for East Asian and SCO Studies, expressed the opinion in an interview with RT that the United States is using the tactics of statements on Taiwan to contain Beijing.

“The main attention of the United States today is still diverted to other regions of the world, but they do not want to lose sight of the Asia-Pacific region either, although they do not have the opportunity to fully deal with it.

Therefore, most likely, by making statements about supporting Taiwan, they are thereby trying to frighten China and prevent it from attacking Taiwan, which is interesting to the Americans, although there is an opinion in expert circles that the PRC now has pretty good chances for such an operation, ”said is he.

At the same time, if China is nevertheless forced to implement a military scenario, then the United States will have to send its troops, aircraft and fleet to Taiwan, experts say.

Otherwise, they will not be able to keep the “independence” of the island. 

As Aleksey Maslov noted, the constant stuffing and high-profile statements by the American leadership do not contribute to stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Such remarks only lead to an escalation of tension and drawing more and more countries into the conflict, as well as stimulate the creation of new military blocs and destabilize trade operations in the Asia-Pacific region.

However, today the United States is interested in any way to divert China's attention from the international agenda, in which there is an unprecedented attack on Russia.

According to their logic, if Beijing did not support the Western course of weakening the Russian Federation, then it should be drowned in local problems, ”the expert concluded.