Warn Taiwan Not To Provoke Independence, China: We Take Drastic Action

Taiwan Affairs Office Spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang. (Twitter/@globaltimesnews)

JAKARTA - China will take drastic action if Taiwan makes a step toward independence, a Beijing official warned on Wednesday, adding Taiwan's provocations and outside interference could escalate next year.

China claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, increasing military and diplomatic pressure to assert its claim to sovereignty over the past two years, sparking anger in Taipei and alarm in Washington.

Beijing is willing to try its best to achieve peaceful reunification with Taiwan. However, it will act if any red lines on independence are violated, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang told a news conference.

"If the separatist forces in Taiwan seeking independence provoke, exert force or even break through red lines, we must take drastic action," Ma said.

Ma said provocations by pro-independence forces and external intervention could grow sharper and more intense in the coming months.

"Next year, the Taiwan Strait situation will become more complex and severe," he said.

Taiwan has emerged as a key factor in strained relations between China and the United States, the island's most important international backer and arms supplier despite no formal diplomatic ties.

China has regularly described the island as the most sensitive issue in its relations with the United States.

Beijing has sent repeated air missions over the Taiwan Strait in recent months to put pressure on Taiwan. Taipei meanwhile said it would not give in to threats.

While the United States recognizes only one China, it is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and has long followed a policy of "strategic ambiguity" about whether to intervene militarily to protect Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. .

To note, the defeated Government of the Republic of China fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists, who founded the People's Republic of China.