A senior Polish security official has stated that Beijing’s attack on the Polish Prime Minister for his comments on Taiwan is an attempt to push Poland in the direction of its own policy towards Taiwan.
Speaking at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington D.C. on Thursday, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned that if Ukraine were to succumb to Russian pressure, it could encourage China to attack Taiwan.
The Chinese embassy in Warsaw released a statement on Friday morning in response to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s remarks.
“On April 13, a Polish government official… openly compared the issues of Taiwan and Ukraine, and made an unfounded claim that if Ukraine loses the war, mainland China will attack Taiwan the next day,” the statement read.
“Taiwan is an inseparable part of China’s territory and the Taiwan question is entirely China’s internal affair, which is radically different from the issue of Ukraine, there is no comparison between them,” it said.
“Any attempt to use the Ukraine issue as a pretext to insinuate a relationship with the Taiwan issue is political manipulation with ulterior motives, mindless trampling on the principle of respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and flagrant interference in China’s internal affairs,” the statement added.
Polish government official Stanisław Żaryn addressed the Chinese embassy’s statement in a series of tweets Friday afternoon. He highlighted the importance of respecting freedom of expression and noted that the Polish government is committed to protecting the security of the country’s information space.
“The nervous stance of the Chinese embassy in Warsaw is a reaction to the words of the Polish Prime Minister, who in the US pointed out the need to support Ukraine and the possible threat to Taiwan’s independence should UA lose,” he wrote.
“In this way, Beijing is attacking the Polish head of government and trying to force Warsaw to recognise that Taiwan’s independence and security is an internal Chinese matter,” Żaryn argued.
“In violation of diplomatic rules, the Chinese embassy is attempting to depreciate the Polish Prime Minister, describing him as a certain Polish official’ who is ‘making unfounded claims’ about ‘an inseparable part of China,’ ” he wrote further.
Żaryn has claimed that Chinese propaganda has taken advantage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to fault the West and the United States since the war’s onset.
“At the same time, Chinese propaganda centres argue that the US will be ‘interested’ in destabilising the situation around Taiwan once the war is over,” he added.
“The attack by Chinese propaganda on the Polish Prime Minister, the style of operation of the PRC embassy in Warsaw and the way Beijing conducts its policy indicates that the Sino-Russian tactical alliance is covering more and more areas of joint action,” Żaryn concluded.