Shanghai: Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang stated on Friday that China owns both sides of the Taiwan Strait and that maintaining its sovereignty is right and proper.

At the Lanting Forum in Shanghai, Qin spoke on a variety of subjects, including debt, the world economy, and Taiwan.

Recently, there has been irrational rhetoric that accuses China of upsetting the status quo and causing instability across the Taiwan Strait, Qin said. "The conclusion is dangerous and the logic is absurd."

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Fair-minded individuals "can see who is engaging in hegemonic bullying and high-minded practises," he continued.

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Taiwan independence separatist forces and a few other nations are attempting to upset the status quo, not the Chinese mainland, according to Qin. In Taiwan, "those who play with fire will eventually get burned."

Following Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen's return to Taipei from a meeting in Los Angeles with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, China recently conducted military drills around the independent island.

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Beijing regularly criticises high-level meetings between Taiwanese and foreign leaders and officials and regards Taiwan, which is democratically run, as its own territory, a claim that the government in Taipei vehemently rejects.