Phoenix TV: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on the margins of the NPT Review Conference yesterday that “Congress is an independent, coequal branch of government...this is very much precedent in the sense that previous speakers visited Taiwan...And so if the Speaker does decide to visit, and China tries to create some kind of crisis or otherwise escalate tensions, that (responsibility) would be entirely on Beijing.” Do you have any response?

Hua Chunying: I think the world has seen very clearly that it is the US’s provocations that have led to the escalation of tensions in the Taiwan Strait. The US should and must take full responsibility for it. Secretary Blinken’s words confound black with white and have once again revealed the hegemonic mindset and extortionist logic of some people in the US. The US is essentially saying to us that “I can make provocations against you as I please, but you cannot reject them or act in self-defense.”

Over the past few days, China has made clear its stern opposition through various channels and at different levels both in Beijing and Washington to the potential visit to Taiwan by Speaker Pelosi. Let me just reiterate certain points.

First, any US government institution, executive, legislative and judicial alike, must act on the foreign policy recognized and committed to by the US government. In 1979, the US government made a clear commitment in the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations that “the United States of America recognizes the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China. Within that context, the people of the US will maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan.” The US Congress is part of the US government, and it should strictly abide by the foreign policy recognized and committed to by the US government. When the House Speaker, being the third-highest ranking figure in the US government, flies on US military aircraft and makes a provocative visit to the Taiwan region, it is by no means an unofficial action.

Second, the wrongful actions of certain US politicians in the past do not constitute a precedent and still less should they become an excuse for the US to repeat its mistake on the Taiwan question.

And third, the one-China principle is a universally recognized basic norm in international relations and a common understanding of the international community. It is on the basis of the one-China principle that China has established diplomatic ties with the US and 180 other countries. This is a solemn commitment the US has made on the one-China principle to China in the three Sino-US Joint Communiqués. 

In recent years, the US has claimed that it is committed to the one-China policy, but action-wise, it has been backtracking, and even blurring and hollowing out the one-China principle. It has inserted into its characterization of the one-China policy the so-called “Taiwan Relations Act” and the “Six assurances”, which were unilaterally concocted and have never been recognized and have been firmly opposed to by China. The US has also gone against its commitment of maintaining non-official ties with the Taiwan region. It has upgraded its level of contact with Taiwan and has steadily increased arms sales to Taiwan.

Many people with insight both within and outside the US have seen this very clearly. They have repeatedly pointed out the danger of US actions. According to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who said at this year’s World Economic Forum, “my understanding of the agreement has been that the US would uphold the principle of one China”, “I think it's essential that these principles be maintained”, and “the US should not by subterfuge or a gradual process develop something of a two-China solution”. After news came out about Pelosi’s potential visit to Taiwan, many people, including those from mainstream media and think tanks in the US and former political leaders of some US allies, have publicly said that whatever reason Pelosi uses to visit Taiwan, it would be foolish, dangerous, and unnecessary; that it would be a dangerous gamble; that it would be hard to imagine anything more reckless and provocative than this; and that if the US side misjudges or mishandles the cross-Strait situation, it will lead to disastrous consequences for the Taiwan region and even the security, prosperity and order of the entire world.

Fourth, the US has been following a strategy of using Taiwan to contain China. And based on this strategy, the US has supported and connived at Taiwan-independence separatist forces and has made deliberate provocations against China on the Taiwan question. It has been pushing the envelope on China’s red lines. The US and Taiwan have made provocations together first, whereas China has been compelled to act in self-defense. Any countermeasure to be taken by China would be a justified and necessary response to the US oblivion to China’s repeated démarches and the US’s unscrupulous behavior. And China is only exercising its right as any independent sovereign country would, not to mention that China is a country of more than 1.4 billion people with over 5,000 years of history. We hope that the US is clear-eyed about that.

And fifth, the historical ins and outs of the Taiwan question are crystal clear, so are the facts and status quo that both two sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China. China firmly opposes separatist moves toward “Taiwan independence” and interference by external forces, and never allows any room for “Taiwan independence” forces in whatever form. The position of the Chinese government and people on the Taiwan question is consistent. Resolutely safeguarding China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity is the firm will of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people. Achieving full reunification of the motherland is a shared aspiration of all Chinese people. And the US should give up any attempt to play the Taiwan card and strictly abide by the one-China principle and the three Joint Communiqués both in words and deeds and to the letter. If the US insists on pursuing the wrong course of action, it will assume full responsibility for all serious consequences arising therefrom.