Wu attended the Ministry of Defense's monthly press conference in Beijing on Thursday and responded to a question about Taiwan's President William Lai recently describing China as a "hostile external force" for the first time.
China has already reacted to the statement with large-scale military exercises, which Wu calls "a harsh punishment" and "a warning to intervention forces" – referring to the USA, which militarily supports Taiwan.
The Beijing regime wants Taiwan to be part of China. But in practice, Taiwan has been an independent country since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, when two rival governments took over in Beijing and Taipei respectively.
