China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday criticized the United States for changing the text of the State Department’s website on relations with Taiwan, referring to the episode as “political manipulation”.
The US government body removed the part of the website where it mentioned not supporting Taiwan’s independence and recognizing China’s position on the island being part of the country.
The democratically governed island is considered by Beijing to be inviolable Chinese territory.
The change in the website’s wording appears to have been made on May 5, the date at the top of the datasheet, but was only reported by the Chinese and Taiwanese media on Tuesday.
While Washington said the update did not reflect a change in US policy, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said it was “a petty act of fictionalizing and deflating the one-China principle. “.
“This kind of political manipulation is an attempt to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and will inevitably ignite a flame that will only singe” the United States, Zhao said.
State Department spokesman Ned Price, meanwhile, said that while some words may have changed, “the underlying policy hasn’t.”
“We regularly update our fact sheets. Our fact sheets reflect, in the case of Taiwan, our strong unofficial relationship with Taiwan, and we ask the PRC to [República Popular da China] to behave responsibly and not make excuses to increase pressure on Taiwan,” Price told a news conference.
The State Department also added an excerpt about a series of Reagan-era security guarantees given to Taiwan.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it will continue to strengthen its self-defense capabilities and cooperate with the United States and other like-minded countries to promote peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific Strait and region.
China says Taiwan is the most sensitive and important issue in its relations with the United States.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s claims to sovereignty, saying only the island’s 23 million people can decide its future.
