A Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force formation conducts island patrols during training on April 26, 2018. The formation was made up of fighters, early warning and surveillance aircraft, and H-6K bombers, which took off from various military airfields. The formation flew over the Miyako Strait and Bashi Channel, completing an island patrol, the subject of the training.Photo:Xinhua

Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, held on Wednesday a phone conversation with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at the latter's request. Yang stressed that recent US actions and statements on the Taiwan question are quite different, noting that if the US persists in playing the "Taiwan card" and goes further down the wrong path, it will surely lead the situation to serious jeopardy. Yang noted that China will take firm actions to safeguard its sovereignty and security interests, and the US can count on China to keep its promise.

"The US can count on China to keep its promise" is a stern warning to the US. For some time recently, the US has been increasingly paranoid in playing the "Taiwan card." Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives, postponed her farce of a visit to the island of Taiwan due to being "tested positive for COVID-19." The website of the US State Department deleted the key content including that "Taiwan is part of China." These were blatant provocations against China. Moreover, the island of Taiwan will be an important topic in the meetings between the US and its allies during US President Joe Biden's visit to South Korea and Japan. Some Japanese media reported that Biden and his Japanese counterpart will include the island of Taiwan together with Ukraine in the joint statement after their upcoming summit. The US and its lackeys have accelerated the speed and scope of "salami-slicing" tactics on the Taiwan question.

Washington is gradually viewing the Taiwan question as its trump card to contain China after its previous campaigns failed, be it launching a trade war with China, politicizing COVID-19 origins tracing, trying to build a "beautiful sight" in Hong Kong, to slandering Xinjiang for "genocide," all these tricks didn't work. Meanwhile, the development of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has inspired Washington's imagination. Some US politicians and public opinion have lost in the craze of pulling the island of Taiwan into their narratives on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. They have become more arrogant and belligerent and more reckless on China's core interests. 

If the US feels that it has benefited from the Ukraine crisis, and therefore it takes lightly China's will and capability, it will prove to be a major strategic miscalculation that will make it too late to repent. To intensify manipulation of the Taiwan question is to strike a match on the edge of the "biggest powder keg between China and the US." If Washington wants to boost the "morale" of Tsai Ing-wen and her ilk to fight for the US, it will be an impossible attempt, and will send DPP authorities to a dead end.  

Recently, Washington tried to persuade Taiwan authorities to buy a large number of mobile and lethal weapons to fight an "asymmetric war" with the Chinese mainland. Some in the US even raised the fallacy that "the US army should destroy Taiwan's infrastructure to assist Taiwan once the mainland strikes Taiwan." It seems that in order to fully exploit Taiwan's value as a pawn in the US' strategic competition with China, the US has taken up the idea of letting Taiwan authorities respond to the mainland's reunification efforts with "scorched earth" and "urban warfare." With such vicious intentions and under the guise of "rescuing Taiwan," can such a United States offer security to its allies and the DPP authorities? And those forces that follow Washington to manipulate the Taiwan question will definitely end up setting themselves on fire.  

Anyone who knows the history of New China is clear about the significance of China's early warning: "But when the day comes, don't say you are not given a heads-up." China's harsh verbal warnings are never meant to scare people, but contain firm determination to act and specific action plans. Unlike Washington's politicians who are used to saying one thing and doing another, China is a country that walks the talk, and this is a cultural gene deep in its bones. The Taiwan question concerns China's core interests, and will not become an "exception." China will do its utmost to seek a peaceful solution to the Taiwan question, but it will inevitably deal with any "Taiwan independence" risks with the strongest determination and the most adequate preparations.

In other words, to safeguard national unity and the integrity of sovereignty, we will not fear to go to a showdown, and we will not be afraid to fight any incoming enemy. Decades ago, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army with outdated weapons and severely insufficient logistical supplies crossed the Yalu River with great vigor and splendor, breaking the myth of the US military's invincibility. Today, the Chinese People's Liberation Army is equally indestructible in its will to defend its homeland, and its strength is even greater than before. We'd like to remind the US, "Mishandling the Taiwan question will have a disruptive impact on bilateral ties." The US should weigh on this, and we would also want to remind other parties: "The Chinese nation has the valor to fight the enemy to the bitter end" - such a spirit allows no misjudgments at any time.