BEIJING, September 7. /TASS/. The US is absolutely deliberately provoking China over Taiwan and trying to induce it to take ill-considered moves in relation to the island, Russia’s ambassador to China Andrey Denisov told the media on Wednesday.
"It goes without saying that what is happening is a completely conscious policy of challenging Beijing in attempts to take some poorly calculated steps with the aim of preparing some kind of response that would aggravate potential damage for China," he said.
Denisov stressed that Beijing had no objections to ordinary economic cooperation between various countries and Taiwan. He also recalled that a Russian office of the Moscow-Taipei Coordinating Commission for Economic and Cultural Cooperation functioned on the island.
"In a word, a certain code of conduct is to be observed. That code was established by Beijing, in the first place. China rightly considers Taiwan as its integral part," Denisov said. He recalled that only 14 countries recognized Taiwan as a separate state, while the rest - including the United States itself - agreed it was part of China.
"However, by provoking China and annoying it, which the United States has been doing absolutely consciously, the Americans, and all those in the West who follow in their wake, cross a certain red line," he explained.
Situation around Taiwan
China has been regularly conducting military exercises in the Taiwan area over the past few weeks following US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August 2-3 visit to Taipei. After that, several more US delegations visited the island, thus provoking sharp criticism from Beijing, which went ahead with more military exercises in the region.
Taiwan has been governed by its own administration since 1949, when the remnants of the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) fled there after their defeat in the Chinese Civil War. Since then, Taipei has retained the flag and some other attributes of the former Republic of China, which existed on the mainland before the Communists came to power. Official Beijing considers Taiwan one of the provinces of the People’s Republic of China, and this position is backed by numerous countries, including Russia.