China refutes US remarks on "defending" Taiwan
( 2002-04-10 10:18 ) (8 )

The Taiwan issue is purely China's internal affair and no other country in the world should interfere, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said in response to claims from a high-ranking US military official that the US would do everything needed to protect Taiwan.

The remarks seriously violated the commitments made by the US government in the three Sino-US Joint Communiques, said Zhang, adding that those remarks, out of ulterior motives, interfered in China's internal affairs.

Zhang stressed that history had repeatedly proved that US arms sales to Taiwan and its elevation US-Taiwan relations would only incite the separatists in their attempts to split Taiwan from mainland and would lead to the deterioration of Taiwan Straits situation and boiled down to the jeopardy of the interests of the US itself.

The spokeswoman urged the US to strictly abide by the serious commitments that it had made to the Chinese government and Chinese people and stop the wrong actions so as to avoid further damage to Sino-US relations.

The Taiwan issue was at the core of Sino-US relations, reiterated Zhang, emphasizing that any measures or remarks that ran against the three Sino-US Joint Communiques would undermine Sino-US relations.

"We hope US behaves as it says, strictly abide by the three Sino-US Communiques and stop using the Taiwan issue to interfere in China's internal affairs," Zhang said.