Taiwan has no right to join Interpol: mainland spokesperson

BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan, as part of China, does not have the right to become an Interpol member, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office said on Wednesday.

Spokesperson Zhu Fenglian made the remarks at a regular press conference in response to a media query about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities' call for international support for Taiwan's inclusion in Interpol, from which the island has been excluded for decades.

Interpol, an intergovernmental organization for police cooperation in combating crime, has 196 member countries, each hosting a National Central Bureau.

"The participation of the Taiwan region in activities of international organizations must be in accordance with the one-China principle. This has been our consistent and clear position," Zhu said.

The Taiwan question stems from China's civil war fought between the forces led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) about eight decades ago. In 1949, the defeated KMT retreated to Taiwan, and the People's Republic of China was founded under the leadership of the CPC.

The unresolved civil war, combined with foreign interference, has kept the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in a prolonged state of political confrontation. However, the fact that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory has never changed.

Zhu noted that China and Interpol have already made proper arrangements for the Taiwan region to participate in cooperation and activities under the Interpol framework.

Police authorities in the Taiwan region have unimpeded channels for information sharing and cooperation on cases with Interpol National Central Bureaus in all member countries, she added.

The DPP authorities have been trying to deceive people on the island through repeated political manipulation over Taiwan's participation in international organizations, but their attempts to seek "Taiwan independence" via provocations will inevitably fail, the spokesperson said.