South Korea has summoned Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming to log a protest for the “rude” remarks made by the Chinese foreign ministry over Taiwan’s interference. China responded to South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol’s remarks, who said on Wednesday that Taiwan “is not just China’s issue but a global issue.” The South Korean President insisted in an address that self-administered Taiwan and North Korea are the concerns shared by the international domain. The two countries traded a war of words over Taiwan and the Korean peninsula.
Seoul opposed change of status quo ‘by force’
Taiwan issue is “completely different and not comparable at all, and this is a well-known fact”, Chinese ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Thursday. Wenbin iterated that North Korea and the South were both sovereign states and members of the United Nations. In response to China, South Korea’s first vice foreign minister Chang Ho-jin told Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming that remarks hurled by Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin earlier in the day is a “serious diplomatic discourtesy.” Wang had urged Seoul to “abide by the one-China principle and handle the Taiwan issue prudently.
“In response to our leader’s mention of the universal principle that we oppose the change of the status quo [of Taiwan] by force … [Wang] made an unspeakable statement,” the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Yoon in an interview with an agency had reportedly indicated that the countries have been attempting to change the status quo by force and that he is against such belligerence. He added that the international community must oppose such moves. Taiwan issue he had claimed is not just a Chinese matter but of the whole of the globe. South Korean leader was commenting on the Chinese military drills launched in the vicinity of the self-ruled island following Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
China reacted sharply to the remarks saying South Korea’s comments were “erroneous” and that China had lodged its own concerns. “The political foundation of Sino-South Korean relations requires the South Korean side to abide by the spirit of the joint communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea, and be cautious in words and deeds on the Taiwan issue,” Wang said at a state press briefing.