TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China said on Wednesday (Jan. 17) that its threat of force to annex Taiwan is aimed at foreign interference and a small number of so-called “separatists,” according to Reuters.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won its third-straight presidential election in Taiwan on Saturday (Jan. 13) and has offered to hold talks with China that have repeatedly been rejected. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Spokesperson Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said at a regular press briefing in Beijing the Taiwanese election results do not change the fact that the country is “Chinese” and will eventually be “reunified.”
“Our not promising to renounce the use of force is absolutely not targeted at Taiwan compatriots. We are targeting interference from external forces and the tiny number of Taiwan independence separatists and their separatist activities,” Chen claimed, per Reuters.
Chen repeated TAO’s claims after Taiwan’s election on Saturday that mainstream Taiwanese want peace not war, exchanges not distance, and to “take down” the DPP. “If the DPP does not repent and goes further and further on the wicked path of seeking ‘independence’ provocations, it will only push Taiwan into a dangerous situation and bring serious harm to Taiwan,” Reuters cited Chen as saying.
He said the Taiwanese are “our flesh and blood,” but some have been “poisoned” by notions of independence and have a “biased understanding” of cross-strait relations and national identity.
“We are willing to maintain sufficient patience and tolerance, continue to deepen the understanding of the mainland of the motherland by the majority of Taiwanese compatriots, and gradually reduce misunderstandings and doubts,” Chen noted. “We hope and believe that our compatriots in Taiwan can firmly stand on the right side of history and be upright Chinese people.”
Chen also criticized a Taiwanese reporter for using “Beijing” to refer to China, saying the correct wording was “the mainland,” Reuters said.
Surveys show that people in Taiwan overwhelmingly consider themselves Taiwanese not Chinese, while there is almost no support for China’s “one country, two systems” framework as a way for Beijing to rule Taiwan, per Reuters.