Beijing slams Taiwan's Lai as peace saboteur

The Foreign Ministry slammed on Wednesday the true nature of Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te authorities as trouble-makers and peace saboteurs, warning that soliciting external support and pursuing a military buildup to seek "Taiwan independence" is doomed to fail.

Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun made the remarks after Lai said in a speech on Wednesday that Taiwan is a "sovereign and independent country" and that he hoped sales of weapons by the United States would continue.

Lai's authorities have developed a conditioned response of making every attempt to grab attention, Guo said.

The US should abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, and take concrete actions to safeguard overall bilateral relations as well as peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, he said.

Also in Wednesday's speech, Lai said that "foreign forces cannot decide the future of the island".

Lai, in sticking to his separatist stance, is using false democracy as a cover, Guo added.

No matter what the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces say or do, they cannot mislead public opinion in the region or change the fundamental fact that the Taiwan question is purely China's internal affair, Guo said.

They also cannot shake the international community's commitment to the one-China principle, or stop the historical trend that China will and must achieve reunification, he added.