China’s Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi

China has warned the United States will pay an unbearable cost due its actions over Chinese Taipei, saying by encouraging Taiwanese secessionist forces, Washington puts the self-ruled island in a perilous situation.

China has sovereignty over Chinese Taipei, and under the One China policy, almost all world countries, including the US, recognize that sovereignty, meaning that they should not have direct diplomatic contact with the self-proclaimed government in Taipei.

Chinese Taipei’s secessionist president Tsai Ing-wen has independence aspirations and views the island as a sovereign state, rejecting the One China principle.

The US has long courted Taipei and sells weapons to the self-governed island in violation of its own stated policy, angering Beijing.

On Thursday, China’s Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi said that the US was at risk of paying an unbearable price for encouraging the secessionist forces in Taipei.

The US has gone back on its commitment made when it established diplomatic relations with China, condoned and abetted ‘Taiwan independence’ forces, and tried to distort and hollow out the One Chine Principle. This will put Taiwan into an extremely precarious situation and bring an unbearable cost to the US itself, Wang said, in an interview with China’s official Xinhua News Agency.

The reunification of China is an unstoppable trend. Attempts to seek ‘Taiwan independence’ will inevitably end up in failure. There is no other way out for Taiwan than to reunify with the mainland. This is an inexorable trend of history and the only practical and logical outcome, the Chinese foreign minister stressed.

Sino-US relations have grown increasingly tense in recent years, with the world’s two largest economies clashing over a range of issues, including trade, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, military activities in the South China Sea, and the origins of the coronavirus.

Beijing regularly describes the island as the most sensitive issue in its ties with Washington.

China has been flying fighter jets close to Chinese Taipei recently, while the US has reportedly had troops deployed in the territory for the past year for alleged training purposes.