Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te holds a press conference to mark his first month in office in Taipei, Taiwan, June 19, 2024. REUTERS
BEIJING/TAIPEI, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Taiwan President Lai Ching-te is escalating tensions with “sinister intentions”, China’s government said, ahead of a keynote speech Lai will give in Taipei that could set off a Chinese military response.
Lai, who took office in May after winning the election in January, is detested by China which calls him a “separatist”. Beijing claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a view Lai and his government reject.
Responding late on Tuesday to comments Lai gave at the weekend on how it is “impossible” for the People’s Republic of China to become Taiwan’s motherland because Taiwan has older political roots, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said he was confusing right from wrong.
Lai continues to peddle a theory that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are two separate countries, it said in a statement.
“Lai Ching-te’s Taiwan independence fallacy is just old wine in a new bottle, and again exposes his obstinate stance on Taiwan independence and his sinister intentions of escalating hostility and confrontation,” it added.
Lai will give his main national day speech on Thursday, which marks the overthrow of the last Chinese dynasty in 1911 and the ushering in of the Republic of China.
The defeated republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists. The Republic of China remains Taiwan’s formal name.
Taiwan’s China policy making Mainland Affairs Council said it was an objective fact that since 1949 the People’s Republic of China had never ruled the island.
“The Taiwan Affairs Office’s remarks have made Taiwan’s people see clearly that the Chinese communists regard themselves as the sole legitimate government of China and simply do not allow any room for the survival of the Republic of China,” it said.
China is likely to launch military drills near Taiwan in response to Lai’s speech as a pretext to pressure the island to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials say.
CHINESE DRILLS
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said they could not speculate on what China would or would not do.
“However, it is worth emphasising that using routine annual celebrations or public
remarks as a pretext or excuse for provocative or coercive measures undermines peace and stability,” the spokesperson said.
China’s defence ministry on Wednesday reiterated its objections to U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan after the Biden administration approved $567 million in further defence support.
“What needs stressing is that arming Taiwan is encouraging Taiwan independence, and Taiwan independence means war,” the ministry said, echoing previous language it has used.
China’s military operates on an almost daily basis around Taiwan and regularly stages what Taiwan refers to as “joint combat readiness patrols”, most recently on Sunday.
China has also been carrying out a series of other drills in recent weeks, including operations with Russia in the Western Pacific and test firing an intercontinental ballistic missile last month.
Taiwan’s defense ministry told Reuters in a statement that China has been using various reasons to “legitimise its targeted military drills”.
“We continue to monitor and analyse the training dynamics of the Chinese communists around the Taiwan Strait in order to anticipate the situation,” the ministry added.
Lai says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, and has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but been rebuffed.
China staged “punishment” war games around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s May inauguration.
Reporting by Beijing newsroom and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Washington; Editing by Michael Perry
