China Accuses Taiwan's President Of Spreading "Sesat Learning" On Sovereignty

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te. (Twitter/@ChingteLai)

JAKARTA - China on Monday accused Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te of spreading " heretical rules", hostilities and provocations, after a speech saying the island was "certainly" a country and there was historical evidence and legal evidence in support of it.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office, responding to President Lai's speech on Sunday evening, said he had deliberately turned history around to promote Taiwan's independence agenda and the island was never a country.

"It was the declaration of Taiwan independence' that openly incited cross-sate confrontations, and gado-gado mistakes and misappropriation of Taiwan independence' which was full of mistakes and negligence," the office said in a statement. June 23.

"A mistake created by Lai Ching-te that goes against history, reality and jurisprudence will only be swept into a pile of historical trash," he continued.

Beijing says democratically-ruled Taiwan is China's "clean" territory that has been China's since ancient times, and the island is one of its provinces that has not the right to be called a country.

President Lai and his government strongly reject this view, several times offering talks with China but are always rejected. The Bamboo Curtain country calls President Lai a separatist.

President Lai has repeatedly said only the Taiwanese can determine their future, and because the People's Republic of China has never ruled the island, they have no right to claim or speak on their behalf.

In 1949, the Government of the Republic of China fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war and it remains the island's official name.

Over the past five years, Taiwan has faced growing military and political pressure from China, including war games.