Taiwan denounces Beijing’s drive to leave it isolated on world stage
Taipei hits back after successful efforts to force airlines to stop referring to island as separate country and strip self-ruled island of youth games
Taiwan on Thursday denounced Beijing’s latest moves to increase its global isolation, saying residents of the self-governing island would reject attempts to deny its existence.
Beijing in recent days has forced international airlines to stop referring to Taiwan as a separate country on their websites. It also allegedly prompted the Asian Olympic Committee to withdraw the island’s right to host a youth competition scheduled for next year in the central city of Taichung.
“These are attempts to destroy Taiwan’s sovereignty, and erase it from the world map,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrew Lee told reporters at a news conference.
“I believe that no Taiwanese people would accept such a thing,” Lee said.
Beijing’s action is aimed at increasing Taiwan’s isolation and prodding it toward a political union with the mainland.
Taiwan is already excluded from the United Nations and other major international organisations, and the mainland has been steadily poaching the self-governing island’s dwindling number of diplomatic partners.
Beijing has also stepped up its military threats by sending warplanes on patrols around the island and staging war games on its side of the Taiwan Strait.