Asia

China says Taiwan separatists will ‘stink for eternity’

adminJanuary 14, 20201 Mins read116 Views

BEIJING: Taiwan separatists are doomed to "stink for eternity", China's top diplomat warned after the island's President Tsai Ing-wen won a landslide re-election victory in a stinging rebuke to Beijing.

Tsai, who has drawn the ire of Beijing for refusing to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of "one China", secured a record-breaking win in Saturday's vote.

READ: Taiwan's Tsai wins landslide in stinging result for China

But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed her victory and warned supporters of Taiwan independence during a week-long tour through Africa.

"Splitting the country is doomed to leave a name that will stink for eternity," Wang said in a statement on Monday.

The "one-China principle" is a "universal consensus" held by the international community, he said, and one that will "not be affected in the slightest by a local election in Taiwan."

Beijing, which has vowed to one day take Taiwan – by force if necessary – loathes Tsai, who has pitched herself as a defender of liberal democratic values against an increasingly authoritarian China.

Over the last four years, the Chinese government has ramped up economic, military and diplomatic pressure on the island, hoping it would scare voters into supporting Tsai's opposition.

But the strong-arm tactics have backfired and voters flocked to Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party, fuelled in part by China's hardline response to months of huge and violent protests in Hong Kong.