Mar 19, 2005

Taiwan: China Criticises US 'Interference' Over Taiwan Anti-Secession Law


China accused US lawmakers of interfering in its internal affairs by criticising a law that gives Beijing a legal basis to wage war against Taiwan if the island moves to declare independence
China accused US lawmakers Friday of interfering in its internal affairs by criticising a law that gives Beijing a legal basis to wage war against Taiwan if the island moves to declare independence.

The US House of Representatives on Wednesday warned that the anti-secession legislation alters "the status quo in the region, and thus is of grave concern to the United States."

An official from the Chinese legislature's foreign affairs committee labelled the US criticism blatant interference in China's internal affairs, the official Xinhua news agency said.

"While the US House of Representatives disregarded facts and passed a resolution blaming China for changing the Taiwan Strait status quo, it totally confused right and wrong," Xinhua quoted the unnamed official as saying.

"No foreign forces have the right to intervene," on the issue, the National People's Congress official added.

"It is known to all that we have made unremitting efforts to develop relations across the Taiwan Straits and promote China's peaceful reunification," the official said.

The National People's Congress on Monday passed the law aimed at crushing moves towards secession by independence-leaning President Chen Shui-bian and his government -- labelled by Beijing as separatist forces.

Chen, Beijing's bete noire because of his pro-independence stance, has called for a million-strong protest march on March 26 in Taipei.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due in Beijing at the weekend, for talks expected to focus on the Taiwan issue and the North Korean nuclear standoff.

Taiwan has been ruled separately since the Nationalists fled to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war on the mainland to the communists.

China still considers the island of 23 million part of its territory.

 

Source: AFP