China has taken note that two Members of Saeima, the Latvian Parliament visited China's Taiwan region on November 28. This act grossly violates the one-China principle and renounces the political commitment made by Latvia in the communique on the establishment of diplomatic relations with China, sending out gravely wrong messages. We deplore and firmly oppose to it.
The Taiwan question is an internal affair of China, which concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and bears on China's core interests. There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory and the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. The one-China principle is an universally-recognized norm governing international relations and an overwhelming consensus of the international community. The Latvian government explicitly recognized Taiwan as an inalienable part of the Chinese territory and committed not to establish official relations or engage in official contacts with Taiwan in the Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Latvia, which is the political prerequisite for the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations and the political foundation for maintaining and developing friendly and cooperative relations between China and Latvia in 1991. Latvia reaffirmed this commitment in the Joint Communique on the Normalization of Relations between the two countries in 1994.
China firmly opposes official and political interactions in any form or in any pretext with Taiwan by any country having diplomatic ties with China. We urge certain individual Latvian politicians not to be used by the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces. They should earnestly abide by the one-China principle, prudently and properly handle Taiwan-related issues, stop sending wrong signals to the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, and stop erroneous acts that harm the bilateral relations and mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Latvia.