by Wang Yingjin

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- For some time, China has taken a series of firm and strong countermeasures against continuous U.S. provocations over the Taiwan question, causing Washington to falsely accuse Beijing of "unilaterally changing the status quo across the Taiwan Strait."

If we want to grasp the hegemonic nature of the United States, whose words are inconsistent with its deeds, we must make clear why the country is unqualified to define "the status quo across the Taiwan Strait," what the U.S. rhetoric on "the status quo" means in essence, and what the real status quo is.

For a long time, the United States has been meddling in the Taiwan affairs to preserve its strategic interests in the Asia-Pacific, under the guise of "maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," and has demanded that China "refrain from changing the status quo by force."

However, the so-called maintenance of "the status quo across the Taiwan Strait" by the United States means continuing the situation of "no reunification and no independence" of Taiwan. Its essence lies in obstructing China from resolving the Taiwan question, attempting to solidify the "split and partition" across the Taiwan Strait, and creating "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan" in disguise.

The definition unilaterally made by the United States based on its own national interests has no binding force on China, nor has China ever accepted it. There is no legal basis for the U.S. accusation that "Beijing is trying to alter the status quo by force."

The fact that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are not yet reunified is a historical issue left from China's civil war. It is China's internal affairs, which can only be resolved internally without the intervention of foreign forces.

The United States constantly tries to apply the rules of international law in dealing with territorial disputes between countries to the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Such attempts intend to change the nature of the Taiwan question as China's internal affairs, distort it into an international one, and furnish itself with a "legal basis" for interfering in China's resolution of the Taiwan question, so as to create "one China, one Taiwan" or "two Chinas" to meet its own interests.

While the United States keeps normal diplomatic relations with China, its self-defined "status quo across the Taiwan Strait" grossly violates such basic principles of international law as mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-interference in each other's internal affairs, and seriously undermines China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The United States hopes to maintain the so-called "status quo across the Taiwan Strait," so as to achieve the goal of using Taiwan to contain China. The United States often offers illegitimate support to the Taiwan authorities in disregard of legal principles and moral basis. Therefore, the United States follows "a dual-track policy" on Taiwan, and often plays a double-act.

In order to maximize its own interests, the United States claims that it will not violate its long-standing one-China policy, while continuing to fuel tensions across the Taiwan Strait by expanding arms sales to Taiwan, sending lawmakers to Taiwan, and revising the so-called "fact sheet on U.S. relations with Taiwan," to name a few.

In recent years, the United States has passed a series of bills, gradually distorting, obscuring and hollowing out the one-China principle, and treating Taiwan as an "independent political entity," in an attempt to provide legitimacy for its intervention in the Taiwan question.

With the continuous improvement of China's comprehensive national strength, the general trend of cross-Strait reunification has become irresistible.

Against such a backdrop, both the Democratic Progressive Party authorities' "incremental independence" approach and the U.S. practice of offshore balancing regarding Taiwan, which entails "the mainland does not seek reunification and Taiwan does not seek independence," cannot be sustained.

In the face of China's legitimate right to development and its just cause, the United States, instead of reflecting on its own mistakes in interfering in other countries' internal affairs, has described China's domestic affairs of legitimately and rightly achieving national reunification as "changing the status quo across the Taiwan Strait" and a challenge to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific. Such distortions by Washington are extremely absurd and its intentions are impossible to achieve.

What is the real "status quo across the Taiwan Strait?" The answer is clear: The two sides across the Taiwan Strait belong to the one and same China, Taiwan is a part of China, and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China have never been divided.

Although the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have not yet achieved complete reunification, China has never given up reunification. The official documents of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government as well as leaders' speeches have always stated that the Taiwan question will be resolved and China's complete reunification will be realized. The two sides of the Taiwan Strait must be and will surely be reunified.

Resolving the Taiwan question is purely China's internal affairs. When and how China will resolve the Taiwan question are matters within China's sovereignty, and have nothing to do with the United States.

China has never recognized or accepted the "status quo across the Taiwan Strait" advocated by the United States and the Taiwan authorities, and has firmly opposed various U.S. actions that unilaterally undermine the situation of the Taiwan Strait.

As a matter of fact, the United States is the real destroyer of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and a fraud who tries to pin the blame of changing the "status quo across the Taiwan Strait" on China. In terms of the Taiwan question, China has full legal and moral confidence, making itself more determined, willing and powerful to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The U.S. acts of grossly interfering in China's internal affairs and challenging the one-China principle will face strong protests and firm countermeasures from the Chinese people. Enditem

(Wang Yingjin is a professor and director of the cross-Strait relations research center of the Renmin University of China.)