China Foundation for Human Rights Development Vice President and Secretary-General Lin Bocheng Tuesday slashed the US-Japan joint statement on the Taiwan issue, saying it interfered in China's national sovereignty and violated Chinese people's human rights.  

"The national sovereignty of a country is the foundation and basic guarantee of its people's human rights. If a nation loses its sovereignty, it is then meaningless to talk about human rights there," Lin said.

"Taiwan is an inseparable part of China and the Taiwan issue allows no interference by foreign force."

The joint statement overtly challenged China's national sovereignty and violated Chinese people's human rights, he said, adding that "We Chinese people will never tolerate it."

The United States and Japan, following a high-level security alliance talk in Washington on Saturday, announced for the first time that one of their "common strategic objectives" across the Asia-Pacific region is to urge China to resolve the Taiwan issue peacefully through dialogue and to be more transparent about its military modernization.

Lin said the joint statement seriously violated the Charter of the United Nations, the International Covenant of Human Rights and the norms of international laws.

The UN Charter stipulates that no country should interfere in the internal affairs of other nations.

The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action, adopted at the UN World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993, also forbids any action that will fully or partially undermine or violate the sovereignty and territory integrity and political unification of an independent country.

"Such principles can be seen in many international declarations and norms. The US-Japan joint statement on the Taiwan issue will be condemned and opposed not only by the Chinese people, but also by all the nations and people who uphold justice and love peace," Lin added.

At the same time, Lin said the joint statement also went against the commitments of the United States and Japan on the Taiwan issue.

In the China-US joint communiqué signed when the two countries forged diplomatic relations in 1978, the United States stated the US government acknowledged China's position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China.

When China and Japan normalized their diplomatic relations in 1972, Japan stated that the Japanese government fully understands and respects the stand of the Chinese government that Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory.

Both the US and Japanese governments have reiterated the same position on many other occasions later.

"But this time the two countries made the joint statement that goes beyond their bilateral relations, regardless of their commitments to the international community. Their interference in China's national sovereignty, territory integrity and reunification goes against the will of the people and is doomed to failure," Lin said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2005)