'Taiwan should not be an issue between PH, China'

Source: The Manila times
Author: Javier Joe Ismael

MANILA Philippines: The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines said that any attempt to implicate Taiwan in the maritime dispute between China and the Philippines was dangerous.

In an official statement on Friday, the Chinese Embassy said that Taiwan "was not and should never become an issue between China and the Philippines."

The Embassy emphasized that the one-China principle was the political prerequisite and foundation for the establishment and development of diplomatic relations between China and foreign countries.

The Embassy cited that on June 9, 1975, the late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and then Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. signed in Beijing the Joint Communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines.

In this Communiqué, the Philippine Government recognizes "the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, fully understands and respects the position of the Chinese Government that there is but one China and that Taiwan is an integral part of Chinese territory, and decides to remove all its official representations from Taiwan within one month from the date of signature of this Communiqué."

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"We appreciate the implementation of the one-China policy by successive Philippine governments in the 49 years since the establishment of our diplomatic relations.

"Such an attitude of the Philippine society towards the Taiwan question has not been questioned or challenged. Yet we have noticed with deep concern some jarring noise by certain individuals in the Philippines acting in contravention of the one-China principle under the disguise of economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people exchange," the Embassy said.

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The Embassy argued that the Taiwan question, starkly different from the maritime differences between China and the Philippines, was purely an internal affair of China that did not cause any external interference.