Recently, turning a blind eye to the facts, the US and its few followers have groundlessly blamed China for its legitimate, reasonable and lawful measures to uphold sovereignty and territorial integrity and accused China of “unilaterally changing the status quo by force in the region”. Instead of reflecting on or condemning the acts that seriously violate China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, they have accused China of being “aggressive” for conducting military drills on its own territory and in its own territorial waters and space. For them, it is fine to take any provocative, bullying and hegemonic acts; while for the others, it is not allowed to make any justified defense or take reasonable countermeasures. This is nothing but thieves' crying “Stop thief!” and purely confounding black and white.

Taiwan is China's Taiwan. The one-China principle is a universal consensus of the international community and is at the heart of the three China-US joint communiqués. In disregard of China's strong opposition and repeated representations, the US has connived at Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. This has blatantly violated China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, grossly interfered in China's internal affairs and seriously undermined regional peace and stability. Everyone can see clearly that it is the US that is seeking to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and causing the situation to escalate; it is the US that has made wanton provocations and shameless quibbles; and it is the US that has acted irresponsibly in total disregard of the consequences.

Over the years, the US has selectively applied international law and basic norms of international relations. The US has attacked sovereign states, meddled in the internal affairs of developing countries, and launched military interventions and invasions under different pretexts or even without any reason. Most of the hundreds of US military bases are in Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific and other hotspot regions. History is the best textbook. Since the founding of the US over 240 years ago, there are only 16 years when the US military were not engaged in a war. Furthermore, in recent years, the US has put forward the Indo-Pacific strategy, stepped up collusion with “Taiwan independence” separatist forces, and incited confrontation in the Asia Pacific, with the aim of containing China’s development and maintaining its own hegemony. What is at stake is peace and stability of the region and even the wider world.

By strongly opposing US provocation on the Taiwan question and firmly rejecting US bullying and hegemony, China has been committed to peace across the Taiwan Strait and stability in the region and to international fairness and justice. Had China done nothing against the US's relentless interference in its internal affairs and violation of its sovereignty, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and other purposes of the UN Charter and basic norms in international relations would become nothing but words on paper. And the vast developing world which account for over 80% of the world's population could well fall victim to the US anytime. This is a fight against hegemony, against interference and against secession. China's efforts to uphold peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait has had the support of the overwhelming majority of countries in the world.

The one-China principle is what underpins peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. If the US does care about peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait, it should stop playing the “Taiwan card”, stop interfering in China's internal affairs, genuinely return to the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués and uphold regional and world peace and stability with real actions.

Spokesperson of Embassy of China in Belgium