A gathering to commemorate the 40th anniversary of issuing Message to Compatriots in Taiwan is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Jan 2, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua] Beijing on Wednesday strongly criticized Washington's gross interference in its domestic affairs after US President Donald Trump signed into law the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018 on Monday. The section of the law on Taiwan reiterates the US commitment to counter efforts to change the status quo and to support peaceful resolution acceptable to both sides of the Taiwan Strait and calls on the US president to encourage the travel of high-level officials, as well as regular arms sales, to Taiwan. China is strongly unsatisfied with and firmly opposed to the US for insisting on signing the act into law, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, adding that it seriously violated the one-China principle and stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques. China has lodged solemn representations to the US side, he told a regular press conference in Beijing, urging Washington not to implement the law. The US should prudently and properly handle Taiwan-related issues to avoid undermining China-US relations as well as the peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, the spokesman said. Also on Wednesday, President Xi Jinping stressed that the Taiwan question is a domestic affair that concerns China's core interests and the national bond of the Chinese people, and it allows no interference from the outside. Xi made the remarks when delivering a speech at a gathering held in Beijing to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the issuing of the Message to Compatriots in Taiwan. The statement, issued by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the first day of 1979, proclaims major policies and principles of the peaceful reunification of China. buy wristbands onlinecolor wristbandsmake your own silicone bracelet kitextra large silicone wristbandshorizon wristbands
The bronze statue honoring comfort women in Manila. [DONG CHENGWEN/XINHUA] Philippine women's rights groups have strongly condemned the removal of the comfort woman statue in Manila, calling it a desecration of Filipino women's dignity. The 2.1-meter bronze sculpture, depicting a blindfold, grieving woman in Maria Clara traditional Filipiniana gown and unveiled in December, represents women in the country forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels during World War II. This monument is reminder of the Filipino women who were victims of abuses during the occupation of the Japanese forces from 1942-45. It took a while before they came out into the open to tell their stories, reads the inscription on the monument. Activists said the statue was quietly removed around 8 pm on Friday, less than five months after it was erected along Roxas Boulevard. GABRIELA Alliance of Filipino Women strongly condemns the removal of the comfort woman statue along Roxas Blvd despite opposition from women's rights advocates, historians and other sectors, said Joms Salvador, GABRIELA secretary-general. Manila City Hall said the statue will be returned once drainage work is completed, but it gave no time frame for the project. The statue supposedly serves as a reminder to future generations of Japan's atrocities and abuses against Filipino women during World War II, and women's historical victimization in times of wars of aggression, she said. The erection of the statue has angered Japan. Japan's Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Seiko Noda had expressed regret over the construction of the monument in January. Last year, Osaka terminated its 60-year sister-city ties with San Francisco to protest a statue commemorating Asian sex slaves that was erected by Asian communities. The issue of comfort women has provided a dilemma for the Philippines' relations with Tokyo, a major provider of aid and financing to Manila. It's estimated that at least 200,000 women in their teens across Asia including the Korean Peninsula, China, Indonesia and the Philippines, were forced to work in the wartime military brothels. Xinhua and AP contributed to this story. paw print silicone braceletsrubber band wristband maker24 hour wristbandmake rubber braceletscustom tennis wristbands<%2fcenter>
