Furious over the Biden administration's invitation to Taiwan to take part in the “Summit for Democracy”, China on Wednesday warned the US that it will get “hurt” by giving Taipei the world stage as Beijing slammed the summit itself saying the event was aimed at pursuing Washington's “geopolitical games”.
Taiwan, a self-ruling island as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary, is among 110 invitees to the Washington-led Summit for Democracy to be held December 9-10, the US State Department announced on Wednesday.
President Joe Biden is to host the summit bringing together leaders from governments and civil society and China was omitted from the list of invitees, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
Invitees from the Asia-Pacific region also include India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Pakistan and the Philippines.
Most European countries are also invited, including Serbia, but not Bosnia and Herzegovina or Hungary.
China for some time has been attacking the democracy summit, saying that the US cannot hold a patent for it and the event is aimed at dividing the world.
But Beijing appears to have been surprised by the invitation to Taiwan to take part in the democracy meeting as it came in the backdrop of the recent virtual summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Biden.
Sharply criticising the US move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that China “firmly opposes the invitation to Taiwan by the US authorities for Taiwan to take part in the Summit for Democracy.”