China’s overseas minister Qin Gang has warned of “harmful” penalties for international locations that intervene in Taiwan, saying “those that play with fireplace . . . will ultimately get burned” amid heightened tensions over the island nation.

Qin’s remarks got here after South Korea’s president accused Beijing this week of “makes an attempt to vary the established order” on Taiwan “by power” and because the US and Philippines performed their largest joint navy workout routines in additional than three a long time within the area.

“Lately there was absurd rhetoric accusing China of difficult the so-called rules-based worldwide order, of unilaterally altering the established order throughout the Taiwan Strait via power and coercion and of disrupting peace and stability throughout the Strait,” Qin mentioned on Friday. “The logic is absurd and the implications harmful.”

South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, who will journey to Washington for a state go to subsequent week, had blamed Beijing’s marketing campaign of diplomatic and navy coercion in opposition to Taipei for latest hostilities.

“These tensions occurred due to the makes an attempt to vary the established order by power, and we along with the worldwide group completely oppose such a change,” Yoon mentioned in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday.

“The Taiwan situation will not be merely a difficulty between China and Taiwan however, like the problem of North Korea, it’s a world situation.”

Tensions have escalated between China and international locations together with the US over Taiwan, which Beijing claims as a part of its territory and has threatened to overcome. US lawmakers have known as for extra arms gross sales to Taiwan to allow it to defend itself from an assault by China.

China held three days of navy drills round Taiwan this month in response to a gathering between the nation’s president Tsai Ing-wen and US Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California, the highest-profile assembly between US and Taiwanese officers on American soil.

Qin will journey to the Philippines on Friday for a three-visit that coincides with the Balikatan navy drills, which opened final week someday after China concluded its workout routines. The drills will embrace operations that Beijing could interpret as a response to its navy exercise, together with within the South China Sea and round Taiwan. The Philippines this yr additionally granted the US entry to 4 extra navy bases.

In response to Yoon’s feedback, Chinese language overseas ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Thursday mentioned the Taiwan situation “is a matter for the Chinese language, who don’t should be informed what ought to or shouldn’t be performed”.

He added that tensions over Taiwan have been being stoked by “separatist actions with the assist and connivance of overseas forces”.

The Chinese language ambassador in Seoul was summoned to the South Korean overseas ministry on Thursday night in protest in opposition to Beijing’s “impolite” response to Yoon’s feedback.

Qin’s remarks in Shanghai on Friday have been a part of a hard-hitting speech wherein he underlined Beijing’s stance that Taiwan was a home situation.

“The Taiwan query is the core of the core pursuits of China,” Qin informed a discussion board held to advertise Chinese language diplomacy and its mannequin of improvement.

“We are going to by no means again down within the face of any act that undermines China’s sovereignty and safety. Those that play with fireplace on Taiwan will ultimately get themselves burned.”

Qin additionally mentioned China had a “solemn obligation” to uphold the UN Constitution, which seeks to guard the territorial integrity of sovereign states, regardless of Beijing’s failure to sentence Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Dominance and hegemony will not be the purpose of China’s improvement,” he mentioned.