中文
This is an editorial from China Daily.
Republic of Korea president Yoon Suk-yeol must have got out of bed on the wrong side when he said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that tensions across the Taiwan Strait occurred because of the attempts to change the status quo by force, and his country together with the international community absolutely oppose such a change.
He said that the Taiwan question is not simply an issue between Beijing and Taipei but, like the Korean Peninsula issue, it is a global issue.
Yoon should not have taken leave of his senses no matter how much he wanted to curry favor with Washington before his US trip this week. He should have known that he has deviated from the one-China principle his country has promised to abide by and was interfering in China's internal affairs and damaging its core interests when he defined the Taiwan question as an international issue like that of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Drawing a parallel between the two is absurd. The entire world knows that the People's Republic of China is the sole legitimate government of the country and Taiwan is part of China. That the Taiwan question is China's internal affair is an irrefutable fact.
The escalation of tensions across the Taiwan Strait is because some secessionists on the island have denied the 1992 Consensus and have been doing whatever possible to make "Taiwan independence" a fait accompli. With this aim, they have solicited and been given Washington's support as the latter has intensified its efforts to use Taiwan as a pawn for its containment of China's rise.
If Seoul treasures its neighborly relations with its largest trading partner that have been cultivated through years of exchanges between the two governments and peoples, it should be clear how rash it is for its president to make such insensible remarks about the Taiwan question. Should Seoul value the peaceful regional environment for development, it should have known how dangerous it is for the ROK to let itself be a pawn of the US.
The ROK's involvement in the internal affairs of China will only increase tensions across the Taiwan Strait by sending wrong messages to secessionists on the island.
By jumping on Washington's geopolitical bandwagon, Seoul is doing a disservice to its own development as a major regional economy, by antagonizing its largest trading partner. And by pointing an accusing finger at China in such a stupid way, it is doing something detrimental to the peace and development in the region.
The Taiwan question is China's core interest, and no country should expect China to give in on this. The ROK president needs to be clear about this.
The ROK has the obligation and responsibility to do whatever it can to contribute to regional peace and development, and that means it should not let the US lead it by the nose.
