In response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's remarks while answering a question over the Taiwan question at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Monday that it has been used by some forces to create tensions between China and Ukraine, reiterating that the Taiwan question, which is China's internal affair, is fundamentally different from the Ukraine issue. 

During a video call with Zelensky at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a reporter with the Washington Post asked what advice he had regarding China's Taiwan, "which is facing a similar (although not yet violent) campaign of economic and military coercion from its neighbor, China." 

Zelensky said the Ukraine example shows that once violence breaks out, the human costs are staggering, so every effort must be made to find a diplomatic solution to avoid outright conflict, if possible. But at the same time, he said, the international community must intervene before tensions spill over into violence to ensure a smaller country can stand up to an aggressor.

It is worth noticing that while the Ukrainian President did not mentioned the island of Taiwan in his remarks, the Washington Post titled the article "Zelensky calls for international support for Taiwan before China attacks."

At Monday's press conference, Wang noted that Zelensky's remarks, as some media pointed out, have been used by some forces to create tensions between China and Ukraine. 

The spokesperson reiterated that the Taiwan question, which is purely China's internal affair, is fundamentally different from the Ukraine issue, and it does not allow any foreign forces to intervene. Any attempts to separate Taiwan with the mainland will be faced with resolute actions, Wang stressed. 

The Chinese delegation attending the Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore has also become the target of rumors again, when two Western research fellows tweeted on Saturday that the Chinese delegation walked out of the meeting room when Zelensky started his speech via video link. 

The allegation was soon clarified by a former US defense official who pointed out that it was the Vietnamese delegation who left the room and also dismissed as a rumor by a Chinese attendee in the same meeting on Saturday.

Also at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe said the Chinese armed forces will fight to the very end if anyone dares to split Taiwan from China, delivering a tone that some analysts believed to be "the strongest warning" China has sent to the US, as Washington has frequently used the Taiwan question to provoke China and encourage separatist authorities on the island to worsen the region's security situation.

Global Times