Any step towards Taiwan independence will be “severely punished”, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, warned again today after Taiwanese voters chose the candidate for president Lai Ching-te who favors independence.

Voters on this autonomous island, claimed by China, ignored Beijing’s warnings and they gave this candidate a landslide victory, who had been labeled a dangerous separatist by the Chinese Communist Party.

Beijing, which has not renounced the use of force to restore Taiwan’s sovereignty, reacted to Lai Ching-te’s victory by saying it would not change anything. “in the inevitable trend towards reunification with China”.

“If anyone on the island of Taiwan has the intention to move towards independence, (…) they will attempt to divide the Chinese territory and will certainly be severely punished by history and the law,” Wang Yi said during a joint press conference. in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry.

“It’s a dead end”he added.

For the head of Chinese diplomacy, “whatever the election results are, they cannot change the fundamental fact that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of it.”

“Taiwan has never been a country. That didn’t happen in the past and it certainly won’t happen in the future,” he added.

Efforts in this direction “seriously threaten the well-being of Taiwanese compatriots, seriously harm the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, and seriously endanger peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait region,” Wang Yi warned.