China accuses Taiwan of undermining the independence and integrity of other countries following a meeting between the Taiwanese President and a Somaliland delegation visiting Taipei
China accused Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party of “fanning the flames and undermining the independence and integrity of other countries” on Wednesday, following a meeting between Taiwan’s president and the foreign minister of Somaliland in Taipei.
Reaffirming China’s claim to Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the meeting benefited no one and would only end up hurting Taiwan itself.
Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 and has no formal diplomatic relations with any nation.
Taiwan has diplomatic ties with just 14 countries but maintains robust informal ties with the U.S. and most other major nations.
Taiwan opened its de facto embassy in the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa in August 2020, with Somaliland opening a representative office in Taipei on Sept. 9 the same year.
China works relentlessly to undermine such diplomatic arrangements, both formal and informal. Zhao also commented on the upcoming meeting of foreign ministers from the “Quad” — Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S. — a bloc of Indo-Pacific democracies created to counter China.
He said the United States and the other countries concerned should “calm down” and abandon what he called their Cold War mentality.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Australia this week to take part in the meeting. He will return to Washington via Hawaii, where he will hold talks about North Korea with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers.
Zhao reiterated Beijing’s call for the U.S. to lift its unilateral sanctions on Pyongyang and take the North’s “legitimate and reasonable concerns” into consideration.
