SpaceWar.com reports: “China said Tuesday it had complained to the United States over Secretary of State Antony Blinken congratulating self-ruled Taiwan’s newly inaugurated president, Lai Ching-te.

Lai, who Beijing has branded as a ‘dangerous separatist’ in the past, was sworn in on Monday.

In his congratulations message, Blinken said he looked forward to Washington and Taipei maintaining ‘peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait’.

On Tuesday Beijing said his message ‘seriously violates the One China principle… and sends a wrong signal to separatist forces’.

‘We are strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposed to this, and have lodged stern representations with the United States,’ foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference.

Beijing considers democratic Taiwan part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to bring it under its control…”