BEIJING: China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Friday that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to China, and that it is right and proper for China to uphold its sovereignty.
Qin made the remarks at the Lanting Forum in Shanghai, where he discussed a wide range of topics from debt, the global economy, and Taiwan.
“Recently there has been absurd rhetoric accusing China of upending the status quo, disrupting peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Qin said. “The logic is absurd and the conclusion dangerous.”
He added that “fair-minded people can see who is engaged in hegemonic bullying and high-minded practices.”
“It is not the Chinese mainland, but the Taiwan independence separatist forces and a handful of countries attempting to disrupt the status quo,” Qin said. “Those who play with fire on Taiwan will eventually get themselves burned.”
China recently held military exercises around the self-ruled island after Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, returned to Taipei following a meeting in Los Angeles with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Beijing views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a claim the government in Taipei strongly rejects, and routinely denounces high-level meetings between Taiwanese and foreign leaders and officials.
Chinese modernization to provide more opportunities to world
Meanwhile, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Friday that Chinese modernization will not only provide more opportunities to the world but also inject new momentum into the recovery of the global economy and give other developing countries the confidence to pursue their own modernization.
“While Chinese modernization is conceived in China, the opportunities it brings belong to the world,” he said in the opening ceremony of the Lanting Forum on Chinese Modernization and the World held in Shanghai.
Additionally, Qin noted that Chinese modernization will advance the sustainable development of the world and safeguard world peace as China is dedicated to a peaceful path of development and rejects geopolitical confrontation.
The Lanting Forum, established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2010, is a platform for the public and people from the government, businesses, academia and media outlets to discuss China’s foreign policies, the international situation and other important matters of mutual interest.
Qin said that Chinese modernization entails the common prosperity of over 1.4 billion Chinese people. Given China’s large population, Chinese modernization will also give greater impetus to global economic recovery, he said.
Qin illustrated the figure of the result of Chinese modernization, saying it has lifted over 800 million people out of poverty, enlarged the middle-income group to over 400 million people, and attracted over 140 countries and regions to become China’s trading partners. Additionally, Qin pointed out that every day Chinese direct investment worth 320 million U.S. dollars flows to the rest of the world, and more than 3,000 foreign-funded enterprises are set up in China every day.
“Over the past decade, China has contributed more to global growth than all the G7 countries combined,” Qin said, adding the modernization of more than 1.4 billion people, which is bigger than the combined population of the developed countries, will surely provide more opportunities to the world economy.
