Tony Abbott Photo: VCG

China lodged solemn representations to Australia over recent "immoral, irresponsible and ridiculous" speeches made by former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott on Taiwan-related affairs, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Monday, stressing that the one-China principle is a universally recognized norm governing international relations and the consensus of the international community. 

"Some Australian politicians' actions and comments have seriously violated the principle and sent wrong signals," Zhao said at Monday's routine press conference. 

Abbott started a private visit to the Taiwan island on Wednesday. He met with Taiwan island leader Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday and told her that he hoped his visit would help end the island's isolation from the international community.

On Friday, Abbott accused China of displaying "growing belligerence" against the island while addressing to the Yushan Forum, citing a recent increase in PLA planes' visits to the island. 

Later on Sunday, in a signed statement that Abbott released to The Australian, he said that his message to the Taiwan island during the visit was to get ready to fight. 

"The speeches are made out of personal political interest, and they aim to stir up confrontations and hype the China threat conspiracy theory. They are a rude interference in China's domestic affairs and a wanton slander of China, which is very immoral, irresponsible and won't win people's hearts," Zhao slammed. 

In response to Abbott's speeches, a spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Australia said on Saturday on its website that "Tony Abbott is a failed and pitiful politician. His recent despicable and insane performance in Taiwan fully exposed his hideous anti-China features. This will only further discredit him."

Abbott's hate speeches in Taiwan reflect his entrenched fanatic hostility toward China and its political system, social governance and ways of life, paralleled only in degree and intensity by Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state, who shares Abbott's animosity toward China, Chen Hong, president of the Chinese Association of Australian Studies, and professor and director of Australian Studies Centre, East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Monday.

Abbott is also the first Western politician who has openly incited war between the two sides across the Taiwan Straits, while even the US, at least in rhetoric, called on both sides to solve the Taiwan question through peaceful approaches, Chen noted.

Abbott's frenzied provocative pronouncements came along with the meeting of Chinese and US senior officials in Zurich, Switzerland, which was viewed by some experts as a positive sign of easing tensions between the two countries.

"As an extreme right-wing politician, Abbott hates to see China and the US get close. He and the anti-China forces he represents are aimed to escalate the tensions in the region so as to further prompt and engage the US into more controversies or even confrontations in the Asia-Pacific," Chen explained.

Abbott's war-mongering gobbledygook would amount to practically nothing, Chen said, but the secessionists in Taiwan have been making use of his remarks to stir up more cross-Straits troubles, while China-Australia relations, which have already been in a downward spiral, could suffer even more irreparable damage.

"But the fact is, when it comes to bottom line issues concerning China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity such as the Taiwan question, there is simply no room for negotiation. China will give the severest response to whoever attempts to play with fire," Chen noted.