China's Military Ready to Prevent Attempts to Achieve ‘Taiwan Independence’

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - China's military maintains full-time combat readiness to stop attempts by outside forces to achieve so-called Taiwan independence, the Chinese defense ministry said on Friday.

"The PLA [People's Liberation Army of China] troops maintain full-time combat readiness and are capable of fighting at any time, and will take all necessary measures to resolutely thwart external interference and the 'Taiwan independence' secessionist plot, and resolutely safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity," the ministry said in a statement, citing spokesman Wu Qian.

The patrols and military exercises in the sea and airspace that were conducted by the Chinese army near Taiwan, are directed against the provocative Taiwanese-American collusion, the ministry added.

"China firmly opposed such move by the US side, which seriously violated the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques, severely undermined the political foundation of China-US relations," the statement said, commenting on the visit of US Senator Rick Scott, who arrived in Taiwan on Thursday and planned to meet with the island's authorities.

Taiwan alienated Beijing after becoming a stronghold of the Chinese Nationalist Party (the Kuomintang) which was defeated by the Communist Party in a civil war in 1949. The Chinese mainland and the island resumed business and informal contact in the late 1980s. Beijing opposes any official contact of foreign countries with Taiwan and considers Chinese sovereignty over the island indisputable.