Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday urged the United States to keep its commitment not to take a position on the South China Sea issue and do more to contribute to regional peace and stability.

In a report by Xinhua, Geng Shuang's comment at a press briefing came after US Pacific commander Harry Harris's remarks about the US' readiness to "confront" China in the South China Sea.

Like Us on Facebook

Geng, who described the South China Sea situation as "tending toward stability" and "moving in a good direction," also disputed the senior US defense official's remark that Taiwan should increase its defense spending, encouraging the US to keep its promise to stick to the One-China policy.

"The One-China policy is the political foundation of China-US ties," Geng noted, asserting that China opposes any form of official and military relations between the US and Taiwan.

"We urge the US to stick to the One-China policy and the three Joint Communiques between China and the US and to deal with the Taiwan issue in a prudent and discreet manner to prevent China-US ties being disturbed," he said.

What is One-China Policy?

The One-China Policy is the diplomatic acknowledgement that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is a part of that, BBC explained. As a policy, this means that countries questing for diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China must cut off official relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) and vice versa.

The policy can be traced back to 1949 and the end of the Chinese civil war. The defeated Nationalists, also known as the Kuomintang, retreated to Taiwan and made it their seat of government while the victorious Communists declared the People's Republic of China. Both sides said they represented all of China, as reported by BBC.

Under the policy, the US has formal ties with China rather than the island of Taiwan.

However, the phone call between Trump and Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen in early December seemed to break the decades of US Diplomatic protocol that get China's attention to remind US about the existing One-China policy.

Tagschina, United States, China Taiwan One-China Policy, South China Sea, donald trump