BEIJING: China “absolutely will not” rule out using force over Taiwan, a government spokesperson said on Wednesday (Oct 29), striking a much tougher tone than a series of articles in state media this week that pledged benign rule if the island comes over to Beijing.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has never renounced use of force to “reunify” with the island.
But the policy is not often directly voiced in public and did not appear in three Xinhua news agency commentaries this week about Taiwan, one of which mapped out how “patriots” could rule the island after “reunification” and promised Taiwan’s existing social system and way of life would be respected.
Peng Qing’en, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told a regular news conference in Beijing that peaceful “reunification” under the “one country, two systems” model is the fundamental approach to “resolving the Taiwan issue”.
“We are willing to create ample space for peaceful reunification and will spare no effort to pursue this prospect with the utmost sincerity,” he said.
“However, we absolutely will not renounce the use of force and reserve the option to take all necessary measures.”
China’s top official in charge of Taiwan policy, the ruling Communist Party’s fourth-ranked leader Wang Huning, did not mention force in a key policy speech on Saturday, which instead focused on how both sides would benefit from “reunification”.
China’s renewed push on an autonomy model for Taiwan, which no major Taiwanese political party supports and the government in Taipei has repeatedly denounced, comes ahead of a meeting in Thursday between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump told reporters on Wednesday he did not know whether he would even discuss Taiwan with Xi.
Source: CNA
