Taiwan rejects the “one country, two systems” model proposed by Beijing in a white paper published this week, the self-ruled island’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Only Taiwan’s people can decide its future, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou told a news conference in Taipei, the capital.
China was using US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei as an “excuse to create a new normality to intimidate Taiwan’s people,” Ou added.
Earlier on Thursday, Taiwan’s army held another live-fire drill after Beijing ended its largest-ever military exercises around the island, as it repeated threats to bring the self-ruled democracy under its control.
Beijing has raged at a trip to Taiwan last week by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi staging days of air and sea drills around the island that raised tensions to their highest level in years.
Taiwan’s foreign minister said that China was using the military drills it launched in protest against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit as a game-plan to prepare for an invasion of the self-ruled island.
Joseph Wu, who offered no time-table for a possible invasion of Taiwan, which is claimed by China as its own, said Taiwan would not be intimidated even as the drills continued with China often breaching the unofficial median line down the Taiwan Strait.
“China has used the drills in its military play-book to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” Wu said at a press conference in Taipei.
Taiwan has accused China of using the Pelosi visit as an excuse to kickstart drills that would allow it to rehearse for an invasion.
Meanwhile, China on Wednesday vowed zero tolerance for “separatist activities” in Taiwan and reaffirmed that it would take the self-ruled island by force if necessary.