On January 16, 2018 local time, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Foreign Minister Urbino Botelho of Sao Tome and Principe jointly met the press in Sao Tome. A journalist asked about China’s views on the issue that some individual African countries still maintain the so-called “diplomatic relations” with Taiwan.

Wang Yi expressed that the first thing needed to be stressed is that there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory. The Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, which is not only the political consensus of most countries in the world, but also an international principle officially recognized and stipulated by the United Nations. A year ago, Sao Tome and Principe severed the so-called “diplomatic relations” with Taiwan region and resumed diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, which with no doubt is a right decision that conforms to the interests of the country and its people. Over the past one year and more, exchanges between China and Sao Tome and Principe in various fields have been fully resumed with mutually beneficial cooperation being carried out in an all-round manner, bringing tangible benefits to Sao Tome and Principe.

Wang Yi expressed that at present, under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and of the joint construction of the “Belt and Road”, China is accelerating the advancement of its all-round cooperation with Africa so as to help African countries realize economic independence and independent development. In this process, it is true that still some individual African countries, because of maintaining their so-called “diplomatic relations” with Taiwan region, can neither establish normal relations with China, nor participate in China-Africa overall cooperation, which obviously does not conform to the fundamental interests of their countries and peoples. Here, I sincerely hope that all African countries, without a single absentee, will appear in the family photo of China-Africa cooperation, and no one will miss again the historic opportunity of taking the express train of China’s development and no one will be dissociated from the gate to China-Africa friendly cooperation. I believe that in China’s historic process of realizing complete national reunification, all African brothers will stand together with the Chinese people.