Latest news with #cross-straitRelations
South China Morning Post
13 hours ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Beijing accuses Taiwan's William Lai of inciting cross-strait confrontation in speech
Beijing has lashed out at Taiwan's leader for calling the island a country during a speech that the mainland said contained 'fabricated fallacies'. In a commentary on Tuesday, People's Daily, a mouthpiece of mainland China's ruling Communist Party, said William Lai Ching-te 's speech to a Taiwanese branch of Rotary International on Sunday was 'full of various factual errors and historical fallacies' and was highly provocative and harmful. 'It was a 'Taiwan independence' declaration that blatantly incited cross-strait confrontation, and a hodgepodge of 'Taiwan independence' fallacies and heresies full of errors and omissions,' it said. 'It once again showed Lai Ching-te's ignorance and madness, and once again exposed his stubborn 'Taiwan independence' nature and ugly face, confirming that he is a troublemaker, danger-maker and war-maker. 'No matter how much a fallacy is polished, it is still a fallacy; no matter how much a lie is beautified, it is still a lie.' 05:05 Trump and Xi discuss Taiwan, troubled US-China trade ties in call breaking stand-off Trump and Xi discuss Taiwan, troubled US-China trade ties in call breaking stand-off During his speech on Sunday – the first of 10 in a series called 'Uniting the country' – Lai said Taiwan was 'of course' a country.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
China says Taiwan president spreading 'heresy' with sovereignty speech
BEIJING (Reuters) -China on Monday accused Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te of "heresy", hostility and provocation, after a speech in which he said the island is "of course" a country and there is historical evidence and legal proof to back this up. Beijing says democratically-governed Taiwan is "sacred" Chinese territory that has belonged to China since ancient times, and that the island is one of its provinces with no right to be called a state. Lai and his government strongly reject that view, and have offered talks with China multiple times but have been rejected. China calls Lai a separatist. China's Taiwan Affairs Office, responding to Lai's Sunday evening speech, said he had intentionally distorted history to promote his Taiwan independence agenda and that the island has never been a country. "It was a 'Taiwan independence' declaration that blatantly incited cross-strait confrontation, and a hodgepodge of 'Taiwan independence' fallacies and heresies full of errors and omissions," it said in a statement. "The fallacies fabricated by Lai Ching-te in contravention of history, reality and jurisprudence will only be swept into the rubbish heap of history." Lai has repeatedly said that only Taiwan's people can decide their future, and that, as the People's Republic of China has never ruled the island, it has no right to claim it or speak on its behalf. In 1949, the Republic of China government fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists, and that remains the island's formal name. Taiwan has over the past five years faced stepped-up military and political pressure from China, including war games.
