Protest in Taipei, TaiwanBEJING, Jan 28China urges the United States to stop playing with fire on the Taiwan issue, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Chinese State Council's Office of Taiwan Affairs, said at a press conference on Friday, commenting on a meeting between Taiwan Vice Chief of Staff William Lai (Lai Qingde) and US Vice President Kamala Harris in Honduras. Earlier, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported that William Lai attended the inauguration ceremony for Honduran President Siomara Castro. He spoke to Harris during the ceremony.
China's foreign minister said Taiwan will «come home» «We urge the US government to respect the One China principle, strictly adhere to its promise not to support «Taiwan independence» and stop playing with fire on the Taiwan issue,» Zhu Fenglian said. said Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) continues to «colluge» with outside forces and engage in provocative actions aimed at separating the island. According to Zhu Fenglian, by such actions, Taiwan sets itself «against the entire Chinese nation.» «Any provocative action by any forces aimed at realizing «Taiwan independence» will result in severe punishment in accordance with the law,» Zhu Fenglian concluded. Official relations between the central government of the PRC and its island province were interrupted in 1949, after the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek, defeated in a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party, moved to Taiwan. Business and informal contacts between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the parties began to contact through non-governmental organizations — the Beijing Association for the Development of Relations across the Taiwan Strait and the Taipei Foundation for Cross-Strait Exchanges.
