'Ignorant' to call Taiwan a country, China says

22/5/2025 16:58

It is "arrogant and ignorant" to call Taiwan a country and its future can only be decided by China's 1.4 billion people, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday in a rebuff to the democratically-governed island's foreign minister.



China views Taiwan as its own territory and says the island is one of its provinces with no right to be called a state. It has stepped up military and political pressure to assert those claims, including increasing the intensity of war games.



Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Wednesday that China had no authority to decide whether Taiwan was a country because the island chooses its own government. He added that he would be happy to shake the hand of his Chinese opposite number, Wang Yi, in friendship.



Speaking to reporters in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Taiwan had never been a country.



"The relevant remarks only reveal that certain somebody's arrogance and ignorance, and they are naked provocations for Taiwan independence," she said.

"The future of Taiwan can only be decided by the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people, including our Taiwan compatriots, and China will and must be reunified eventually, which is a historical trend that no force can stop."