China lodges complaint over South Korean president’s ‘erroneous’ Taiwan remarks

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong has lodged a solemn petition to South Korea’s ambassador to South Korea’s president over his “wrong” remarks about Taiwan, China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said in an exclusive interview with Reuters that rising tensions over Taiwan were due to attempts to change the status quo by force, and opposed such changes.

“The Taiwan issue is not just between China and Taiwan, it is a global issue like North Korea,” Yoon said.

Sun said Yun’s remarks were “completely unacceptable,” according to a statement from China’s foreign ministry.

“The South Korean leader did not mention the one-China principle, but equated the Taiwan issue with the Korean Peninsula issue,” Son said.

“Both North and South Korea are sovereign nations that are members of the United Nations. It is a well-known fact that the Korean Peninsula issue and the Taiwan issue are completely different in nature and latitude and longitude, and cannot be compared at all.”

China claims that the democratically ruled Taiwan is part of its territory, but Taipei strongly rejects this position, and countries with ties to China believe that Taiwan is part of China’s territory. China must adopt the position that it is

Sun’s complaint follows last week’s criticism from China’s foreign ministry that South Korea should treat Taiwan-related issues “with caution.” South Korea summoned the Chinese ambassador to protest Beijing’s remarks.

Reported by Ryan Wu. Edited by Kim Coghill and William Mallard

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