By DPA
Taipei : Taiwan Tuesday rapped China for souring cross-strait relations by defying the sovereignty of the island and threatening to attack it.
“The Republic of China (Taiwan) is a democratic, free and independent country whose sovereignty belongs to 23 million people in Taiwan, and only the 23 million Taiwanese have the rights to decide the future of Taiwan,” said the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) in a statement.
The statement came after Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said at the end of the National People’s Congress in Beijing Tuesday that Taiwan is a part of China and its future must be decided by the people of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Wen also warned Taiwan against using an upcoming referendum to change the island’s status quo and pave the way for independence, saying Beijing would never allow Taiwan to officially split from China.
MAC, the island’s top China-policy agency, criticized Beijing for being reluctant to face the reality and that its repeated military threats against Taiwan serve only to further sour cross-strait relations.
“The People’s Republic of China has never had the sovereignty of Taiwan, and the Chinese government has no right to interfere in and decide the political status of Taiwan,” the statement said.
Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, split from the mainland at the end of a civil war in 1949. Beijing considers it an integral part of China and has threatened to send military forces to attack the island should it declare independence.
The ROC title was given to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government, which used to rule China until it was defeated by the communists in the civil war and fled to the island to set up an interim government.