China Says US Is Exaggerating Russian Threat to Ukraine

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, a Russian tank is loaded onto railway platforms after the end of military drills in South Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, a Russian tank is loaded onto railway platforms after the end of military drills in South Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
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China Says US Is Exaggerating Russian Threat to Ukraine

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, a Russian tank is loaded onto railway platforms after the end of military drills in South Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, a Russian tank is loaded onto railway platforms after the end of military drills in South Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

China accused the United States of "playing up the threat of warfare and creating tension", as US President Joe Biden warned that more than 150,000 Russian troops were still massed near Ukraine's borders following Moscow's announcement of a partial pullback.

Western nations have suggested arms control and confidence-building steps to defuse the stand-off, which has prompted them to urge their citizens to leave Ukraine because an attack could come at any time. Russia denies it has any plans to invade.

"Such persistent hyping up and disinformation by some Western countries will create turbulence and uncertainty to the world full of challenges, and intensify distress and division," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters at a regular briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.

"We hope relevant parties will stop such disinformation campaigns and do more to benefit peace, mutual trust and cooperation."

China has been criticized for its stance on Ukraine by some Western leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

"The leadership of the two heads of state, China and Russia, always work to develop long term good neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperative relationship on the basis of non-alliance, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third countries," spokesman Wang added.



‘Impossible’ for People’s Republic of China to Be Our Motherland, Taiwan President Says

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te visits Republic of China Military Academy, an officer training academy, for its 100th anniversary celebrations in Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te visits Republic of China Military Academy, an officer training academy, for its 100th anniversary celebrations in Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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‘Impossible’ for People’s Republic of China to Be Our Motherland, Taiwan President Says

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te visits Republic of China Military Academy, an officer training academy, for its 100th anniversary celebrations in Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te visits Republic of China Military Academy, an officer training academy, for its 100th anniversary celebrations in Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 16, 2024. (Reuters)

It is "impossible" for the People's Republic of China to become Taiwan's motherland because Taiwan has older political roots, the island's President Lai Ching-te said on Saturday.

Lai, who took office in May, is condemned by Beijing as a "separatist". He rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying that the island is a country called the Republic of China, which traces its origins back to the 1911 revolution that overthrew the last imperial dynasty.

The republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists who set up the People's Republic of China, which continues to claim the island as its "sacred" territory.

Speaking at a concert ahead of Taiwan's national day celebrations on Oct. 10, Lai noted that the People's Republic had celebrated its 75th anniversary on Oct. 1, and in a few days it would be the Republic of China's 113th birthday.

"Therefore, in terms of age, it is absolutely impossible for the People's Republic of China to become the 'motherland' of the Republic of China's people. On the contrary, the Republic of China may be the motherland of the people of the People's Republic of China who are over 75 years old," Lai added, to applause.

"One of the most important meanings of these celebrations is that we must remember that we are a sovereign and independent country," he said.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not answer calls seeking comment outside of office hours.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a speech on the eve of his country's national day, reiterated his government's view that Taiwan was its territory.

Lai, who will give his own keynote national day address on Oct. 10, has needled Beijing before with historical references.

Last month, Lai said that if China's claims on Taiwan were about territorial integrity, then it should also take back land from Russia signed over by the last Chinese dynasty in the 19th century.