Attack on Taiwan an option to stop independence: China general

BEIJING: China will attack Taiwan if there is no other way of stopping it from becoming independent, one of the country’s most senior generals said on Friday, in a rhetorical escalation from China aimed at the democratic island Beijing claims as its own.

Speaking at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on the 15th anniversary of the Anti-Secession Law, Li Zuocheng, chief of the Joint Staff Department and member of the Central Military Commission, left the door open to using force.

The 2005 law gives the country the legal basis for military action against Taiwan if it secedes or seems about to, making the narrow Taiwan Strait a potential military flashpoint.

“If the possibility for peaceful reunification is lost, the people’s armed forces will, with the whole nation, including the people of Taiwan, take all necessary steps to resolutely smash any separatist plots or actions,” Li said.

“We do not promise to abandon the use of force, and reserve the option to take all necessary measures, to stabilise and control the situation in the Taiwan Strait,” he added.

China slams ‘senseless’ US move at UN over Hong Kong: China accused the US of taking the UN hostage on Friday over a controversial security law for Hong Kong and warned Western nations to stay out of its internal affairs.

“We urge the related countries to respect China´s sovereignty (and) stop interfering in Hong Kong´s and China´s internal affairs,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press briefing. He also slammed the US approach as “totally unreasonable” and said China would not allow the US to “kidnap the Council for its own purposes.

“We urge the US to immediately stop this senseless political manipulation,” Zhao said. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also said London would widen its rules around the rights of British National (Overseas) passport holders — a status offered to many Hong Kongers at the time of handover — if China went ahead with the new law. Zhao warned that Beijing reserves the right to take “corresponding countermeasures”.