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Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — China renewed its threat to attack Taiwan on Thursday after nearly a week of military exercises near the island. Taiwan called Beijing's insistence on autonomous democracy "wishful thinking" and launched its own military exercises.
Taiwan's "collusion with outside forces to seek independence and provocation will only accelerate its own collapse and drive Taiwan to the brink of ruin," said Wang Wenbin, spokesman for China's foreign ministry. said in daily briefings.
"Their pursuit of Taiwanese independence will never succeed, and their attempts to sell national interests will fail utterly," Wang told reporters.
China's attempt to intimidate Taiwanese citizens, blockade the island and advertise its strategy of potential aggression was nominally prompted by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei last week. was done.
The United States, Japan and allies have condemned the drills, and the G7 developed countries issued a statement expressing concern at a recent meeting.
On Wednesday, the British government summoned Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explain "Beijing's aggressive and widespread escalation to Taiwan".
Taiwan uses Pelosi's visit as an excuse to deepen its feud with Taipei, launching missiles into the Taiwan Strait and destroying the island. said to have launched into the Pacific Ocean. China also sent planes and ships across the midline of the Strait, which was a buffer zone between the two countries separated by the 1949 civil war.
China distorted history in a lengthy policy statement on Taiwan released Wednesday. This includes his 1972 resolution at the United Nations that moved China's seat on the Security Council from Beijing to Taipei, according to Taiwan's cabinet-level Council on Mainland China Affairs. China's statement also reversed a pledge contained in previous statements not to send troops or senior government officials to Taiwan.
China sees Taiwan as a basic document declaring the right of the Communist Party to control the island.
A statement from the Taiwan Council said China was coordinating moves against Taiwan ahead of the ruling Communist Party's 20th National Congress later this year. President and party leader Xi Jinping is set to enter his third five-year term at the conclave after leading a brutal crackdown on politicians, human rights activists and civil society groups accused of corruption. .
President Xi Jinping's suppression of free speech and political dissent in Hong Kong was also seen as a factor in Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen winning a second term in 2020.
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China says it plans to annex Taiwan under the "one country, two systems" formula currently being applied in widely discredited Hong Kong. Opinion polls in Taiwan categorically reject this notion, with respondents overwhelmingly supporting the status quo of de facto independence.
China's statement is "full of wishful thinking and ignores the facts," the China Mainland Affairs Council said in a press release.
"Beijing's crude and clumsy political maneuvers further underscore the arrogant pattern of thinking to use force to invade and undermine the Taiwan Strait and regional peace," the release said. said.
"The authorities in Beijing are deceiving themselves. We warn them to immediately stop threatening Taiwan with force and spreading false information," he said.
Taiwan put its forces on high alert during Chinese military exercises but did not take direct countermeasures. An artillery drill off the southwestern coast facing China, which took place through Thursday, illustrates the challenges the PLA will face if it launches an invasion across the strait.
