China vows retaliation over Pompeo’s message to Tsai

Bloomberg

China denounced a rare message from Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to Taiwan’s president as “wrong and very dangerous,” as tensions between the two sides flared anew over US overtures toward the democratically ruled island.
The Ministry of National Defense said in a statement on Wednesday that the military would “take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard” China’s sovereignty, while the country’s foreign ministry separately threatened retaliation. The warnings came after Pompeo broke with past US practice and issued a statement congratulating Tsai Ing-wen ahead of her inauguration to a second term as Taiwan’s president.
“China urges the US side to immediately correct its mistakes,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“The Chinese side will take necessary countermeasures to respond to the above-mentioned erroneous actions by the US side. And the US side should bear the consequences arising therefrom.”
While Washington has deep informal ties with Taipei and past secretaries of state including Hillary Clinton have met Taiwanese presidents, the US has avoided moves that could be seen as revising its decision to switch recognition to Beijing in 1979. Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Pompeo, who referred to Tsai as “president,” was the first sitting secretary of state to congratulate an incoming Taiwanese leader.
Taiwan has been one of the biggest flash points between the US and China since the Cold War, a dispute that has reemerged in recent weeks as the two sides feud over the spread of the coronavirus. President Donald Trump has repeatedly signalled a desire to build stronger ties with Taipei, including an unprecedented phone call with Tsai in December 2016, but also reaffirmed the US’s “one China” policy.
During her inauguration ceremony in Taipei, Tsai urged China to “find a way to co-exist” with her government, while pledging to build the island’s international support and military capabilities. Tsai has refused to accept that both sides belong to “one China,” leading Chinese President Xi Jinping to sever formal ties with the island before her first inauguration four years ago. In a series of agreements that led the US to establish ties with Beijing more than four decades ago, both sides left the status of Taiwan deliberately ambiguous.
The US recognised the People’s Republic as the “sole legal government of China,” while “acknowledging” Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China.
Over the decades, China has repeatedly accused the US of violating that deal by selling arms to Taiwan or allowing Taiwanese officials to transit through American territory while visiting their dwindling roster of
formal diplomatic partners. Pompeo referred to Taiwan as a “force for good in the world and a reliable partner,” sentiments echoed in statements by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and several US members of congress.
The two sides have been ruled separately since Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists moved the Republic of China government to Taipei during the Chinese civil war seventy years ago. Although trade and cultural ties have flourished, Taiwan and China remain military rivals and Beijing passed a law in 2005 asserting the right to use military force to prevent Taiwan’s formal independence.