BEIJING:  , China on Thursday ( Oct 10 ) condemned Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te for being “hell bent” on independence, after he vowed to “resist annexation” in a speech marking the self-ruled island’s National Day.
Lai’s talk “exposed his hell-bent place on Taiwan’s independence and his sinister intention to intensify conflicts in the Taiwan Strait for democratic self-interest,” according to Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign government.
Lai and his government are opposed to using force to send the political area under its control, but China has not ruled out using force to do so.
” Taiwan has never been a country and can never be one, but it does not have any so-called’ independence'”, Mao said.
She continued, citing Lai’s claims that” all manner of methods were employed to propagandize the myth of Taiwan freedom” and “arbitrarily severed the traditional connection between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
In his statement, Lai pledged to support the region’s “national sovereignty”.
He added that Taipei’s efforts to maintain the” position status of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait remain unwavering.”