1 of 1 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a press interview in Cairo, this Sunday (14). — Photo: Khaled Desouki/AFP Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a press interview in Cairo, this Sunday (14). — Photo: Khaled Desouki/AFP
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said this Sunday (14) that any initiative in favor of Taiwan's independence will be “severely punished”, a day after Taiwanese elected Lai Chingte as president, who is against the unification of the island of Taiwan with China .
“If anyone on the island of Taiwan thinks about seeking independence, he will try to divide China and will undoubtedly be severely punished, both by history and by the law,” the Chinese foreign minister said at a press conference alongside the Egyptian one Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, in Cairo.
“No matter what the election results are. “You can't change the fact that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of it,” Wang said.
“Taiwan has never been a country. It was not in the past and certainly will not be in the future,” he also said at the same press conference.
Taiwan and mainland China have been separated since 1949, when Mao Zedong's communist troops defeated nationalist forces. The latter fled to the island and established an autocracy that became a democracy in the 1990s.
The outcome of Saturday's vote could worsen already notsogood relations between Taiwan and China and even accelerate Chinese invasion plans on the island.
Taiwan elects a prodemocracy candidate as its new president