Interview: U.S. ignores int'l law by signing Taiwan-related act into law, says expert

Photo taken on July 21, 2019 from Xiangshan Mountain shows the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang)

The United States established diplomatic relations with China on the basis of the one-China principle, which means that it should bear corresponding responsibilities, said Kashin.

MOSCOW, April 2 (Xinhua) -- The United States is ignoring the international law by signing the so-called "Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act of 2019" into law, a senior Russian researcher in international relations has said.

"From the point of view of international law, such behavior is completely absurd and illegal," Vasily Kashin, a senior researcher from the Far Eastern Studies Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The United States established diplomatic relations with China on the basis of the one-China principle, which means that it should bear corresponding responsibilities, said Kashin.

"Therefore, they have no right to promote the separatism of a Chinese province, but nevertheless they do it and the fact is that these diplomatic games they are engaged in are only a smaller part of what they do," he added.

"They also deliver weapons, and carry out other forms of cooperation. This is a traditional U.S. policy that has nothing to do with international law and in fact is a complete mockery of international law," he said.

"The signing is a reflection of a policy it had adopted quite a long time ago," he said, adding that this reflects a movement in a single direction, which is based on the U.S. awareness that the Taiwan question is related to the fundamental interests of China.

"As China considers its solution to be fundamental for its interests and it will not back down, the U.S. is hitting precisely at this spot," he added.

"We see an increased number of passages of U.S. warships through the Taiwan Strait, a changed model of military-technical cooperation, and so on," he said.

Photo taken on March 16, 2020 shows the White House Visitor Center in Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

According to Kashin, on the diplomatic front, the United States continues to exert pressure on countries that wish to establish diplomatic relations with China.

"Now this practice, conducted by U.S. diplomats, is formalized in the law. Well, it was expected," he said.

Kashin noted that the fight against China is a priority of the U.S. foreign policy.

"We have witnessed that in addition to the Taiwan theme, the U.S. is also using the epidemic to attack China. A resolution has been submitted to Congress holding China responsible for this epidemic and this issue is already being actively discussed in some U.S. media," he said.

"This behavior itself against the backdrop of such a global catastrophe shows a degree of hostility," Kashin added.

He said that while the COVID-19 pandemic is raging, efforts are being made to discredit Chinese aid to the affected European countries, and there are rumors that China is doing this only to gain political influence.

"The U.S. fight against China in this crisis is escalating and is becoming more severe," he added.  ■