(Adnkronos) – China raises the tone with Taiwan, insisting on a greater commitment “to the cause of reunification”. Speaking this morning was Wang Huning, who sits on the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party and is the number four of the Party-State. And his words were released by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, while from Taiwan – a de facto independent island that for Beijing is a “rebel province” to be “reunified” – they accused the Chinese military of having created, without warning, an area for “live-fire training maneuvers” off the southwestern coast of Taiwan.
Wang, Xinhua reported, stressed “the importance of maintaining the initiative and the ability to govern relations in the Taiwan Strait”, amid tensions over complaints from the island yesterday about the damage to an undersea cable and the seizure of a cargo ship with a Chinese crew.
A loyalist of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Wang spoke at a conference dedicated to Taiwan that was held yesterday and today in Beijing, the agency reports. Wang bluntly called for “a commitment, with determination, to carry forward the cause of national reunification”.
He insisted on the ‘one China’ principle dear to Beijing and on countering “provocations aimed at ‘Taiwan independence'” and “external interference”. Among other things, he called for “supporting the development in mainland China of companies financed by Taiwan”, speaking of the need for “integrated development of the two sides” of the Taiwan Strait.
China, which has never renounced the use of force for “reunification”, accuses Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, of being a “dangerous separatist”. The tone used by Wang is considered by observers to be harsher than in the past.
