Category World News

The United States blatantly announced its plan to sell massive advanced weapons to China’s Taiwan region in December 2025. It grossly violated the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, infringed on China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, and undermined peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this, and has taken a series of necessary measures to safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Taiwan question is entirely China’s internal affair. There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. This has been clearly recognised by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971.

Taiwan’s restoration to China is a victorious outcome of World War II and an integral part of the post-war international order. A series of instruments with legal effect under international law, including the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, have all affirmed China’s sovereignty over Taiwan.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, 183 countries have established diplomatic relations with China on the basis of the one-China principle. The one-China principle is a universal consensus of the international community and a basic norm in international relations.

The US’s massive arms sales to China’s Taiwan region grossly interfere in China’s internal affairs. The US side pledged in the August 17 communique, which China and the US jointly issued in 1982, that it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, that its arms sales to Taiwan will not exceed, either in qualitative or in quantitative terms, the level of those supplied in recent years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China, and that it intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution.

However, the US has not been faithfully implementing the one-China principle and stipulations in the three China-US joint communiques, especially the August 17 communique, over the past 40 years. There have been more frequent open military interactions between the US and Taiwan, and the size and performance of arms sold by the US to Taiwan have kept increasing. It gravely undermines China’s sovereignty and security, while emboldening the “Taiwan independence” separatist forces.

Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese and must be decided by the Chinese ourselves. History and practice have repeatedly proved that the one-China principle is what underpins peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. When the one-China principle is fully recognised and earnestly followed, the Taiwan Strait would remain calm and tranquil. However, when the one-China principle is wilfully challenged or even sabotaged, there would be dark clouds or even violent storms across the Taiwan Strait.

The root cause of the tensions across the Taiwan Strait is that the Taiwan authorities have kept soliciting US support for “Taiwan independence”, and some people in the US intend to use Taiwan to contain China. It is the US and Taiwan separatist forces, not China, that seek to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait. The US arms sales to Taiwan made provocations first. China’s response is legitimate, lawful and justified. It is a severe punishment against the “Taiwan independence” separatist forces and a stern warning to external interference forces.

Although the two sides across the Taiwan Strait have yet to be reunified, the fact that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan belong to one and the same China and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China has never and will not be changed. This is the true status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

To solicit US support to advance their separatist agenda, the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) authorities are turning Taiwan into a powder keg. Their massive and desperate arms purchase further reveals their true nature as provocateurs, saboteurs of peace and warmongers. External forces who try to arm Taiwan to contain China will only embolden the separatists and push the Taiwan Strait closer to the peril of armed conflict.

The Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests, and is a red line that must not be crossed. China will take all measures necessary to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. No matter how many advanced weapons are sold to Taiwan, this will not reverse the inevitability of China’s reunification. Anyone who crosses the line or makes provocations on the question will be met with China’s firm response. All attempts to hold back China’s reunification will invariably fail.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a royal commission into anti-Semitism and social cohesion following the Bondi Beach shooting in December that killed 15 people.

London, United Kingdom – Heba Muraisi and Kamran Ahmed, Palestine Action-linked British activists on the brink of death, are determined to keep up their prison hunger strike until their demands are met, their friends and relatives have told Al Jazeera.

They have refused food for 67 and 60 days, respectively, as part of a rolling protest that began in November. Five of the eight individuals who have participated overall have ended their hunger strikes over health fears. Lewie Chiaramello, who turned 23 on Thursday, is the third prisoner also refusing food.

Muraisi, the longest fasting member of the group, “looks very pale and thin”, said her friend Amareen Afzal, who visited the 31-year-old on Wednesday. “Her cheekbones are quite prominent. She looks quite emaciated.”

Muraisi, a Londoner who had worked as a florist and lifeguard, is reportedly suffering from muscle spasms, breathlessness, severe pain and a low white blood cell count. She has been admitted to hospital three times over the past nine weeks. Afzal has also noticed the decline of Muraisi’s memory and said it is now “more difficult for her to stay engaged conversationally”.

“She speaks of herself as dying and she’s very aware and she is worried,” Afzal said.

But Muraisi is “intent on carrying on until the demands are met”, she added.

The group of remand prisoners are being held in various jails over their alleged involvement in break-ins at the UK subsidiary of the Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems in Bristol and a Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Oxfordshire. They deny the charges against them.

Their protest demands include bail, the right to a fair trial and the de-proscription of Palestine Action, which the UK in July designated as a “terrorist organisation”, putting it on par with ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. They are calling for all Elbit sites to be closed in the UK and have demanded an end to what they call censorship in prison, accusing authorities of withholding mail, calls and books.

All eight individuals will have spent more than a year in prison before their trials take place, well beyond the UK’s usual six-month pre-trial detention limit.

At the time of publishing, the Ministry of Defence had not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

‘It feels like now every time you see him, it could be the last’

Ahmed, a mechanic from London, has lost hearing in his left ear, suffers with chest pains, breathlessness and dizzy spells, and has a low heart rate that intermittently drops below 40 beats per minute, said Shahmina Alam, who visited her 28-year-old brother on Sunday.

He was admitted to hospital on Tuesday for a sixth time since he began refusing food in November, she said.

“He’s skinny. I describe him a bit like a piece of paper,” she told Al Jazeera. “Where his body’s lost a lot of weight, he’s a bit hunched over.

“His cheeks are sticking out. … When he got up to leave, it’s really like slow steps, and you can tell it takes a lot of energy to lift his legs.

“It feels like now every time you see him, it could be the last.”

She feels anxious as “the more time that’s going, the more resolved he is to continue it and ensure that his demands are met.”

Ahmed is “aware that at this stage he could suddenly pass away”, she said, but “he’s still determined.”

The group’s lawyers are calling for a meeting with David Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, hoping to discuss the prisoners’ welfare. Despite criticism from doctors, United Nations experts, some politicians and leading barristers, the government has refused, saying hunger strikes are not unusual in prisons and policies regarding food refusal are being followed.

“We wouldn’t be in this position had the government chosen to engage in a meaningful conversation with … [Ahmed’s] legal representatives or even just a mediator,” Alam said.

Doctor warns of death, irreversible health damage

Chiaramello has refused food every other day for several weeks because he has type 1 diabetes.

He has been “almost perpetually quite ill”, said his partner, Nneoma Joe-Ejim, a trainee solicitor, who visited him on Wednesday. She fears he is at a higher risk of a diabetic coma.

On the days he fasts, he suffers from disorientation, dizziness and sluggishness, she said, adding that she is worried about his new feelings of depression.

“He does seem depleted a lot of the time,” she said.

James Smith, an emergency physician who is among a group of doctors advising the hunger strikers, warned of a critical phase in which death and irreversible health damage are increasingly likely. He also criticised the manner and level of medical care within the prison system.

Teuta Hoxha, who ended her hunger strike after 58 days, is understood to be in hospital while Amu Gib, who paused their protest after 50 days, remains “physically weak”, Gib’s friend Nida Jafri said.

“Amu has no [doctor’s] advice on refeeding right now,” she told Al Jazeera. “They’re left to using their own judgement to figure out how much and of what food they should eat. We, as loved ones, are terrified of this. We are aware that the reintroduction of food can be deadly if done incorrectly.”

Muraisi is “wasting away”, Smith said, adding that her muscle spasms as well as Ahmed’s hearing loss could signal neurological issues. Chiaramello’s diabetic state is likely worsening and could cause long-term damage, he said.

“The trajectory that they are on at the moment can only end in one way, which is progressive decline and eventually death,” he told Al Jazeera. “The organs can hold out for quite some time, particularly in young healthy individuals, and then they can collapse very quickly.”

Hundreds of doctors have called on the UK government to increase the frequency of medical observations of the hunger strikers.

Several of the activists are said to have been handcuffed and restrained while in hospital, leading to claims of degrading and dehumanising procedures that overreach stated prison policies.

“It really is the most undignified treatment that I have ever come across in an NHS [National Health Service] environment in my career as a doctor,” Smith said.

Alam concurred, saying Ahmed fears hospital admissions because he finds the experience “mentally difficult”.

“He’s cuffed constantly” while in hospital, which has led to bruised wrists, and is surrounded by a larger number of prison guards, she said.

On Wednesday, supporters of the protesters drew parallels with history-shaping hunger strikes.

The current action is said to be the largest coordinated hunger strike in British history since 1981 when Irish Republican inmates were led by Bobby Sands. Sands and nine others died of starvation.

Muraisi’s 66th day of refusing food was “significant because it was on the 66th day of hunger strike that Bobby Sands died at the hands of the state”, the Prisoners for Palestine group said.

Francesca Nadin, the group’s spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that she accuses the government of “complete contempt for the safety and for the lives of these innocent young people because they are innocent until proven guilty.