China Says It Will 'Never Compromise' On Taiwan (image: Pixabay)
Chinese military officials said Beijing will “never compromise” on Taiwan issue. China claims the self-ruled island nation Taiwan as their own. China made the statement during a two day military talks in Washington, said Pentagon. It is the latest round of discussions since Washington and Beijing decided to continue military-to-military ties.
China and US are at odds over several issue spanning from Taiwan to China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea. China “stressed that it will never compromise or back down on the Taiwan issue”, said China’s Ministry of National Defense in a statement. China asked US to “stop arming” Taiwan, which is going to hold elections on Sunday.
Reportedly, US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with means to defend itself, whereas China has not ruled out the use of force to secure its territorial control. In the statement, Beijing asked Washington to “reduce its military deployment and provocative actions in the South China Sea and stop supporting violations and provocations by individual countries”.
It said that America should fully understand the root cause of maritime and air security issues, that strictly rein in its frontline troops, and to end the exaggeration and hype.
China has claimed that the entire South China Sea comes under the nine-dash line. Nine-dash line is a marker in Chinese maps, which shows 90 percent of the South China Sea within Beijing’s territory.
The line upset South Asian countries like Malaysia, Philippines, and Vietnam, which also claim the parts of the water body that lies near to their coasts. An international court in 2016 ruled out the line and said that the provide no legal basis for China’s claim on South China Sea is theirs “historically”. China ignored the decision and continues to claim the line’s legitimacy.
China has been building expanding activities in the Sea by building artificial islands and deploying coast guards, fishing fleets and maritime militias to key areas. Countries like Brunei, Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia has claimed parts of the sea, and Philippines has engaged in number of confrontations with Chinese vessels in the sea.
In a statement, Pentagon said, “the two sides discussed US – PRC (People’s Republic of China) defense relations”…and highlighted the importance of maintaining open lines of military-to-military communications in order to prevent competition from veering into conflict”.
US told China that Washington would “continue to fly, sail, and operate safely and responsibly wherever international law allows”, and pointed out the “repeated PRC harassment against lawfully operating Philippines vessels in the South China Sea”.
