China attacks US ‘cold war’ Camp David talks with Japan and South Korea
- Beijing says criticism of its activities in the South China Sea and over Taiwan amount to interference in its affairs
- Foreign ministry says the United States is the greatest threat and challenge to regional peace and stability
Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday that Beijing had lodged representations with the relevant parties to express its “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition”.
“[They] blatantly interfered in China’s internal affairs and deliberately provoked relations between China and neighbouring countries, seriously violating the basic norms of international relations,” Wang said.
“The Asia-Pacific should be a highland of peaceful development. It must not become a boxing ring for great powers, let alone a battlefield for cold or hot wars,” Wang said.
“All attempts to instigate a new cold war in the Asia-Pacific will be resolutely resisted by countries in the region and their people, and all acts to establish and maintain hegemony in the region are doomed.”
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He repeated Beijing’s position on Taiwan, saying the self-ruled island was part of China, and the issue was China’s internal affair.
“China, with the utmost sincerity and utmost endeavour, remains steadfast in working for peaceful reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, but we will never accept interference in China’s internal affairs by anyone or any force under the disguise of peace,” Wang said.
Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan back into its fold and has stepped up military exercises in recent years as cross-strait relations have deteriorated.
Most countries, including the United States, do not see Taiwan as an independent state, but are opposed to a change of status quo by force.
The joint statement from Camp David said there was no change in the three countries’ basic positions on Taiwan.
In response to the joint criticism of China’s activities in the South China Sea, Wang said China’s claims to almost all of the area’s land features and their surrounding waters were “indisputable”, and all activities were well within its sovereignty.
Wang accused the US of being “a spoiler and disrupter of the regional order” and “the greatest threat and challenge to regional peace and stability”.
“The US has gathered its allies to carry out frequent military manoeuvres and close reconnaissance in the waters around China, including the South China Sea, in a show of force and arrogance,” he said.
