136. Editorial Note
A statement issued on January 24 by the Foreign Ministry of the People’s Republic of China reads in part as follows:
“A settlement of the international question of the tension in the Taiwan area through negotiation between China and the United States must not be mixed up with China’s exercise of its sovereign right in the Taiwan area to settle a domestic matter. Taiwan is a part of China’s territory. No amount of sophistry can make out Taiwan a part of the United States and not a part of China. New China has succeeded to China’s entire territory and sovereignty. No statement by the United States Department of State can alter this indisputable fact. The relations of New China with the Chiang Kai-shek clique is China’s domestic matter. Whenever there is any possibility, China will strive for the settlement of this matter by peaceful means, but the United States has no right whatsoever to interfere.”
It further declared that the Chinese had consistently complied with the agreed announcement and the United States had not; that tension in the Taiwan area was due to United States “armed occupation of Taiwan and interference in China’s internal affairs” and a Sino-American meeting of Foreign Ministers should be held to deal with this question; that a statement on the renunciation of force “must lead to the elimination of the force and threat of force employed by the United States in the Taiwan area, and cannot possibly be utilized to induce China to accept the status quo of United States occupation of Taiwan”; and that if the United States persisted in making such a demand and in dragging out the Ambassadorial talks, “the United States must bear the responsibility for all the consequences.” The statement is printed as a supplement to People’s China, February 1, 1956.