Taipei has hit back at Beijing for terming Taiwan an inseparable part of the Chinese territory and said no effort by China could possibly shake the Taiwanese people's determination to pursue democracy.
During the high-level talks between the US and Chinese officials in Alaska on Thursday, Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi suggested that "Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan are all inseparable parts of China's territory."
He emphasised that Washington has no right to interfere in matters that Beijing considers its internal affairs.
Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday denounced China for distorting the facts and responded by describing Yang's comment as a "fallacy". In a press release, the ministry said the remark was not in line with mainstream public opinion in Taiwan.
It stressed that Taiwan is an independent sovereign state with a vibrant democracy and that only 23.5 million Taiwanese can determine its future. It also pointed out that the country has never been under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party.
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan despite the fact that the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.
Taiwan, on the other hand, has countered the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the US, which has been repeatedly opposed by Beijing.
China has ramped up military aggression in the Taiwan strait in recent months.
Since early September, China has been carrying out the provocative and sustained show of forces in the Taiwan Strait.
Over the past few months, Taiwan has reported incursions by Chinese warplanes into Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) almost daily.
China has threatened that "Taiwan's independence" means war.
Wu Qian, spokesperson of China's Ministry of National Defence, on January 28 "warned" the people wanting "Taiwan independence" and said that "those who play with fire will set themselves on fire, and seeking 'Taiwan independence' means nothing but war".
According to an article by The Global Times, a Chinese state media, Taiwan's "mainland affairs council" has warned that any of the mainland's words and deeds that deliberately provoke Taiwan's bottom line may cause far-reaching effects that the mainland cannot bear.
( With inputs from ANI )
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