China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposes the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 and has lodged solemn representations with the United States after U.S. President Joe Biden signed it into law, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Saturday in a press release.

Noting the Act contains a large number of negative provisions on China's Taiwan region, the spokesperson said those provisions seriously violate the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-U.S. Joint Communiques, send a gravely wrong signal to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and severely affect peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits.

On the same day, Zhu Fenglian, the spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council also stated that the Act is a domestic law of the U.S., but it blatantly makes irresponsible remarks on the Taiwan question, including providing military financing and arms sales to Taiwan region. This seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. Joint Communiques, Zhu said.

"For some time now, some people in the U.S. have been making more wrong words and deeds on the Taiwan question. The Act, which provides $10 billion in military assistance and $2 billion in military loans to Taiwan within five years, and steps up arms sales to Taiwan, further demonstrates that there is a force in the U.S. that stands by Taiwan in its efforts to deter China and support the 'Taiwan independence' separatists by providing the region with military arms," Zhu said.

She added that the move is inciting confrontation across the Taiwan Straits, pushing the Taiwan Straits to the brink of war and putting the lives of the people in Taiwan in jeopardy.

Zhu deplored the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan in her statement, saying the DPP stubbornly relies on the U.S. to fight against the Chinese mainland and seeks "Taiwan independence," even at the expense of the lives and welfare of the people on the island, and willingly acts as a pawn of external anti-China forces.

She warned DPP authorities that "Taiwan independence" will lead nowhere, and relying on the U.S. to seek independence is a dead end. No one should underestimate the strong resolve, firm will and strong ability of the Chinese people to safeguard the national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

You Wenze, the spokesperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, also condemned the negative provisions regarding China in the Act on Saturday, stressing that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inseparable part of the Chinese territory. The Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing China so Taiwan has no status under international law other than being part of China, You said, adding this is not only a historical and legal fact that cannot be changed but also a status quo that cannot be challenged.

He noted that China is committed to the path of peaceful development, upholds the common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security outlook, and firmly adheres to a national defense policy that is defensive in nature. The Chinese people's right to a better life is inviolable, he added, urging the U.S. to abandon the zero-sum mentality of the Cold War and don't implement the negative China-related provisions in the relevant bills.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson also stated that Taiwan is China's Taiwan. No external interference in China's internal affairs will be tolerated, adding that the U.S. should stop using Taiwan to contain China, stop fudging, distorting and hollowing out the one-China principle, and stop moving even further down the wrong and dangerous path.

"We urge the U.S. to earnestly follow through on the important consensus reached by the two presidents in Bali, abandon the Cold War and zero-sum mentality and ideological prejudice, view China's development and China-U.S. relations in an objective and rational way, and refrain from implementing the negative China-related provisions in the Act," said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson also denounced the "China threat" narrative in the act, saying it blatantly interferes with China's internal affairs, and attacks and discredits the Communist Party of China (CPC), which is a serious political provocation against China.

Noting the leadership of the CPC is the choice of history and the Chinese people, the ministry stressed that the Chinese people are clear-eyed about the U.S.'s ill intention of suppressing and containing China's development and thwarting the Chinese nation's rejuvenation.

Any attempt to drive a wedge between the Chinese people and the CPC will never succeed, according to the statement.

(Cover: View of Taipei, China's Taiwan region. /CFP)