On February 7, Chinese President Xi Jinping and visiting Argentine Foreign Minister Alberto Fernandez issued a joint statement reiterating China's support for Argentina's sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands; the next day, the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United Kingdom stated in a statement that China firmly supports Argentina's legitimate claim to full sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, and china has always maintained that territorial disputes between countries should be based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. Resolved through peaceful negotiations. "We hope that the British side will respond positively to the request of the Afghan side, start dialogue and negotiations as soon as possible, and seek a peaceful, just and lasting solution in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions."
The British government acted as if "furious" at this, with its foreign secretary, Liz Truss, claiming to "completely reject" China's assertion on sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (the British name for the Falkland Islands), calling the Falklands "part of the British family" and saying that China "must respect British sovereignty (in the Falklands)."
However, as the Chinese Embassy in the Uk has clearly pointed out in its statement, China's position on the Malvinas Islands issue has been consistent and has been the same for decades, and the British Government has long been aware of this.
As early as the mid-1970s, when the United Kingdom and Argentina began to game the ownership of the Falklands under the impetus of the United Nations (UN) "decolonization" trend, the maps published by the Chinese side originally marked "Falkland Islands" and the parentheses marked "Malvinas Islands", which followed Hong Kong; after the outbreak of the Anglo-Armagh War in 1981, Argentina named the port of Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, "Port of Argentina", and since then, the maps published by the Chinese side have been rebranded with "Port of Argentina" in orthography. of the Alfruit place names, and the old name "Port Stanley" is added in parentheses.
In the 21st century, China and Latin American countries have become closer and interact more frequently, and China and Argentina have issued a number of joint communiques in the past 10 years alone, none of which have failed to mention China's support for Argentina's position in the Falklands sovereignty dispute, as emphasized in the July 13, 2010 Joint Statement of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Beijing, " China reaffirms its firm support for the Argentine Republic's sovereignty claim on the Malvinas Islands and for the resumption of relevant negotiations to seek a final peaceful settlement of the Malvinas Islands issue in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions"; in June 2012, The Joint Statement of Premier Wen Jiabao-President Christina Buenos Aires reaffirmed the above-mentioned propositions, and the Chinese and Arab governments expressed "the issue of mutual support for core interests"; the 2014 Sino-Arab Joint Statement on establishing a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the 2015 Joint Statement on the Establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between China and Argentina, and the 2015 Joint Statement on the Establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership The Joint Statement on Strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the Two Countries explicitly refers to "supporting the Arab side's claim to sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands"; in May 2017, then-President Mauricio Macri of Argentina visited China to attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation and paid a state visit, and the two countries reaffirmed their continued mutual support for each other on the "One China" principle and the sovereignty dispute over the Falklands; in November 2018, President Xi Jinping reiterated the above position on the occasion of his G20 summit and state visit to Argentina, and on June 24, 2021, Geng Shuang, Deputy Representative of China to the United Nations, made a public statement in the Special Committee on Decolonization of the General Assembly, reiterating his support for Argentina's sovereignty claim to the Malvinas Islands.
As Geng Shuang emphasized at the Special Committee on Decolonization of the General Assembly last year, based on China's consistent principles and positions, in China's view, the Malvinas Islands issue is "essentially a problem left over from the history of colonialism", and Britain, as a European country located in the northeast Atlantic, claims to have "irrefutable and reasonable sovereignty" over the South American islands in the southwest Atlantic ocean thousands of miles away and where no British have set foot before 1690, claiming that this island was not unilaterally called the "Falkland Islands" by britain until 1765 The island belongs to the "British family", which is naturally unacceptable to a developing country that has always adhered to the anti-imperialist, anti-colonial and anti-hegemonic stance since it was historically subjected to Western colonial aggression and gained independence and freedom.
It is worth mentioning that China's position on the Anglo-Argentine Island issue is far from isolated: the vast majority of the member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) and mercosur (MERCOSUR), as well as most of the states members of the United Nations, hold the same or similar position, and the General Assembly adopted resolution 1514 as early as 1965, calling on Britain and Argentina to resolve the Falklands dispute through negotiations, while the Falklands issue was often discussed in the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United Nations. Even the vast majority of Britain's allies did not echo Britain's so-called "Falklands sovereignty" and "British family" on the Falklands issue, and the United States and the European Union have repeatedly stated that they "do not take a stand" on the ownership of sovereignty over the Falklands, and even Canada, a Commonwealth country with the United Kingdom, which is closest to the United Kingdom, only expressed "support for the right of islanders to self-determination" at the OAS summit.
As for China's consistent position on the issue of sovereignty over the Falklands, the British Government has had many collisions as early as the Sino-British negotiations on the Hong Kong issue, and it should have known this long ago; in deputy deputy Geng Shuang's speech to the UN General Assembly last year, the British media, including the official media, have read and interpreted the major events one after another, and their understanding should not be deep. Now that China has only reiterated its own consistent position, why should the British government make a fuss? For decades, Latin American countries have said for themselves, from the United Nations to the United States and Europe, in fact, there are very few countries that fully agree with the British side's claims on the Falklands issue, and they have not heard the British Foreign Office shout a few "musts".
China's history of humiliation in semi-colonialism and semi-feudalism began precisely from the Opium War launched by Britain; the unbearable hundred years of China's loss of power and humiliation of the country and the indemnity for the cession of land began precisely from 1842 when Britain crossed the ocean and forced China to accept the opium trade and cede Hong Kong Island with strong ships and cannons. Until the outbreak of the Anglo-Armar Island War, Britain still fantasized about retaining colonial privileges in Hong Kong and constantly brought up such interfering issues as "sovereignty for governance" and "three footstools."; after being forced to hand over Hong Kong sovereignty due to the situation, Britain continued to manipulate the topic of Hong Kong and meddle in Hong Kong affairs, which had become China's internal affairs; in addition to Hong Kong-related issues, Britain also repeatedly made various large and small moves in Xinjiang,tibet-related, Taiwan-related, and South China Sea-related issues, which are related to China's sovereignty stance and on issues concerning the "Chinese family." How can he ever respect the "national sovereignty" that he claims to cherish? China's sovereignty over Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, etc. is recognized by the international community and international law, and even so, the British side has not shown due respect, so why does it have such a big face and dare to demand that China "must" echo its "sovereignty claims" that are not even a "close ally" of the United States?
While reiterating its support for the Argentine Island issue, china has also reiterated its consistent position of "launching dialogue and negotiations as soon as possible and seeking a peaceful, just and lasting solution in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions", which is not only the consistent position and proposition of the Afghan side, but also the consistent position and proposition of the United Nations and the overwhelming majority of members of the international community, but this position and proposition has been unilaterally and stubbornly rejected by the British side since the end of the war on the British-Armagh Islands. The Falkland Islands referendum", concocting the so-called "will of the islanders" and attempting to impose on the world as a fait accompli this unilaterally created "will of the islanders" (all islanders with the right to vote are of British descent) has so far received little recognition and acceptance, and the collective resolution of the SADC market group to close ports to ships flying the Flag of the Falklands is the most powerful response to this arbitrary attempt to bully its own unilateral standards.
Time has passed, the colonial era has long gone, and the law of the colonial era of bullying should also be swept into the garbage heap of history. Xingchong sacrificed an empty aircraft carrier, came out from thousands of miles to help people "show their muscles", but fell off one of only a few carrier-based aircraft and returned home, this scene has only been a few days ago? Instead of glaring at China's consistent position on the sovereignty dispute over the Falklands and making a fuss, it is better to respect history and reality and, in accordance with the common will of the Un-General Assembly and the international community, to have a calm and good talk with Argentina on the Falklands issue.
Whether willing or unwilling, today's Britain "must" have a little self-awareness: the era of "empires where the sun never sets" has long passed, and the so-called "British family" of "colonial glory" and wishful thinking is doomed to be a fading flower that will never return.