China’s foreign ministry and embassies around the world this weekend warned countries against supporting Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and condemned foreign governments that congratulated the island’s president-elect Lai Ching-te.
After the DPP’s presidential candidate Lai won the election on Saturday, several ministers and politicians from countries that share warm, if in most cases unofficial, ties with the self-ruled island sent congratulatory messages to Lai and the DPP.
This drew swift responses from Chinese embassies, highlighting Beijing’s sensitivity to other countries appearing to give legitimacy to a candidate and political party it views as “secessionist forces” hoping to turn Taiwan, which it claims as its own, into an independent sovereign nation.
The Chinese foreign ministry on Sunday described a statement from US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, which congratulated Lai and said Washington looked forward to further its unofficial relationship with Taiwan, as “sending a seriously incorrect signal” to “Taiwan independence separatist forces”.
“China has always firmly opposed any form of official exchanges between the United States and Taiwan, and resolutely opposes the United States interfering in Taiwan affairs in any form and under any pretext,” the foreign ministry said in a statement published on its website.
The Chinese embassy on Saturday condemned what it called the “incorrect actions” of British Foreign Minister David Cameron after he said, in a statement congratulating Lai and his party, that the elections were a “testament to Taiwan’s vibrant democracy.”
