CAIRO, Jan. 14 -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday that the result of the leadership election in the Taiwan region cannot change the basic fact that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during a press conference following his meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in the Egyptian capital of Cairo.
The outcome of the recent leadership election in the Taiwan region also won't change the prevailing consensus of the international community on adhering to the one-China principle, he said.
Wang noted that 80 years ago in Cairo, China, the United States and Britain issued the Cairo Declaration, which clearly stipulated that all the territories Japan had stolen from China, including Taiwan, should be restored to China.
Later, the Article Eight of the Potsdam Proclamation, which was jointly issued by China, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union in 1945, required that the "terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out," and then Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration and declared unconditional surrender, he said.
The series of documents with international legal effect formed an integral part of the post-war international order, and laid the historical and legal foundation that Taiwan is an inalienable territory of China, Wang said.
He stressed that Taiwan's independence has never been possible in the past and certainly won't be possible in the future.
Those who seek Taiwan's independence to split the Chinese territory will surely be "severely punished" by history and the law, he warned.
Wang added that any country that violates the one-China principle, interferes in China's internal affairs and infringes on China's sovereignty will be jointly opposed by all the Chinese people and the international community as a whole.
The top Chinese diplomat said that seeking Taiwan's independence is "a dead-end road," as it seriously threatens the well-being of Taiwan compatriots, seriously harms the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, and will seriously undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Wang said that China will eventually achieve complete reunification and Taiwan will return to the embrace of the motherland.
"We believe that the international community, in accordance with the one-China principle, will continue to support the just cause of the Chinese people in striving for national reunification and opposing the separatist activities of seeking Taiwan's independence," he said.