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Taiwan condemns China, 4 Central Asian nations over sovereignty claim

ROC Central News Agency

05/19/2023 07:06 PM

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Friday strongly protested and condemned four joint statements recently issued by China and four Central Asian countries supporting China's territorial claim over Taiwan.

The leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan separately signed bilateral statements with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) following the China-Central Asia Summit which took place in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China on May 18-19, according to the ministry.

Turkmenistan also attended the summit, according to MOFA.

The statements, which claimed that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, deviated from the fact that the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan's formal name) have never been subordinate to each other and Taiwan has never been ruled by the PRC, MOFA said.

No country has the right to deny the existence of the ROC, nor are they able to do so by issuing a joint statement with China, the ministry said via a press release.

The Chinese Communist Party government has repeatedly used meetings with foreign leaders to denigrate the sovereignty of the ROC while the four Central Asian countries believed China and echoed its words in the joint statements which are detrimental to the sovereignty of Taiwan, which MOFA strongly protested and condemned, it said.

MOFA said that China has become a "recidivist" when it comes to trampling on the sovereignty of other countries, citing recent remarks by China's ambassador to France Lu Shaye (盧沙野) that countries that split from the former Soviet Union do not have "effective status in international law" during a television interview.

The former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries should be more vigilant about China's ridiculous assertions because they disregard facts and have overtones relating to its intention to invade Taiwan, the ministry said.

The sovereignty of Taiwan belongs solely to its people and only they have the rights to determine the future of Taiwan, the ministry said.

(By Novia Huang and Shih Hsiu-chuan)

Enditem/AW