Hashtag 'Taiwan is China's Taiwan' trends on Chinese social media after Biden-Xi call
Jul 29, 2022
Beijing [China], July 29 : After China's President Xi Jinping warned his US counterpart, Joe Biden, not to 'play with fire' over Taiwan during a video call, the hashtag "#Taiwan is China's Taiwan" is trending on Weibo with 450 million views, local media reported.
This statement comes after the announcement of House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
China on Thursday warned the US against the House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's upcoming visit to Taiwan next month saying that it will act strongly and take countermeasures if the US side insists on going ahead with the visit.
"China will act strongly to resolutely respond to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's planned trip to Taiwan and take countermeasures should the US side insist on making the visit," Xinhua quoted Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin as saying.
China's Foreign Ministry on Monday used the phrase "Yanzhen Yidai" (We are fully prepared for any eventuality) which literally translates into "streamlining army formation to wait for the enemy," and the Defense Ministry said the Pakistan Liberation Army "will not sit idly by" should Pelosi visit Taiwan, according to local mdia.
During a video call between the leaders of the US and China, Xi stressed that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China and that China firmly opposes separatist moves toward "Taiwan independence".
He said that the US should abide by the one-China principle, which is the political foundation for China-US relations, an official statement from the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry quoted Xi.
"China firmly opposes separatist moves toward 'Taiwan independence' and interference by external forces, and never allows any room for 'Taiwan independence' forces in whatever form", Xi said, adding, "the position of the Chinese government and people on the Taiwan question is consistent, and resolutely safeguarding China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity is the firm will of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people."
On contrary, US president Joe Biden said that the US does not support "Taiwan independence".
"The United States policy has not changed, it strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," a White House statement quoted Biden.
The phone call between the two leaders comes after their conversation on March 18 and a series of conversations between high-level US and PRC officials.
Xi Jinping held the phone conversation with Biden at the request of the latter. This was the second talk since they had a video call in March.
