Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - The US backed Taiwan's claim that the strait separating the island and China is an international wate...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - The US backed Taiwan's claim that the strait separating the island and China is an international waterway on Tuesday, a fresh rebuke to Beijing's claim to sovereignty over the key passage.
Since the defeated Republic of China government retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to the communists, who founded the People's Republic of China, the Taiwan Strait has been a regular source of military conflict.
Warships from the United States, as well as those from allies such as the United Kingdom and Canada, have passed through the strait in recent years, provoking Beijing's wrath.
China's Foreign Ministry stated on Monday that the country "has sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait," and that it is "a false assertion" when certain nations refer to the Taiwan Strait as "international seas."
"The Taiwan Strait is an international waterway," US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in an email to Reuters on Tuesday. "The Taiwan Strait is a location where high seas freedoms, including freedom of navigation and overflight, are guaranteed under international law."
Price went on to say that the world has "an abiding interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which we view crucial to the security and prosperity of the greater Indo-Pacific region."
He reaffirmed US worries over China's "aggressive language and coercive conduct" against Taiwan, saying the US "will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, including transiting the Taiwan Strait."
Joanne Ou, a spokeswoman for Taiwan's Foreign Ministry, termed China's position "fallacious" earlier on Tuesday.
Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang declared on Wednesday that the Taiwan Strait was "by no means China's inland sea."
"China's desire to swallow Taiwan has never ceased or been hidden; the Taiwan Strait is a marine area open to free international passage," he told reporters.
The government in Taipei is "cooperating with external forces to hype up the problem," according to China's Taiwan Affairs Office.
This "harms the interests of countrymen on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and undermines the interests of the Chinese people - it is vile," said Ma Xiaoguang, a spokeswoman for the office in Beijing.
China has never renounced the use of force to annex Taiwan and considers the island to be an inalienable part of its territory.
Taiwan claims that China has no right to speak for it or claim sovereignty, claiming that only the people of Taiwan can decide their own fate and that the People's Republic of China has never ruled any portion of the island.
