US ‘provocations’ over Taiwan call for ‘necessary’ response, Chinese foreign minister asserts

China must exercise its legitimate right to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Wang Yi tells Asian and African envoys to UN

Human rights should not be an excuse to interfere in other nations’ domestic politics, Wang tells group via video link

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Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen meets Senator Ed Markey and other members of the US congressional delegation at the presidential office in Taipei. Photo: Handout via Reuters

Published: 7:30pm, 16 Aug 2022

Beijing needs to make a “necessary” response to the US over Taiwan, the Chinese foreign minister said, as tensions mounted after a US congressional delegation visited the island barely two weeks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“In response to each blatant provocation by the United States, China must make the necessary and legitimate response, which is exercising its legitimate right to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as upholding the principle of non-interference in internal affairs,” Wang Yi told visiting Asian and African envoys to the UN mission in Geneva via video link on Monday.

“This is the ‘golden rule’ of state-to-state relations and the ‘protective shield’ for developing countries to stand on our own feet,” Wang said, according to a foreign ministry statement on Tuesday.

The group is on a trip to China and expected to visit the provinces of Guangdong and Xinjiang in the coming days, according to the foreign ministry in Beijing.

Wang Yi addresses a virtual meeting with Asian and African envoys to the UN in Geneva. Photo: Xinhua

Beijing launched a fresh round of military exercises around Taiwan on Monday, after President Tsai Ing-wen received a US congressional delegation led by Senator Ed Markey.

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