China military action in response to US stopover would be election interference, Taiwan V-P says

TAIPEI - Any Chinese military action in response to stopovers in the United States by Taiwanese Vice-President William Lai would be an attempt by Beijing to interfere in the island’s elections, Mr Lai said during a trip to Paraguay.

Taiwanese officials say China could launch military drills this week, using Mr Lai’s stopovers in the US as a pretext to intimidate voters ahead of an election in 2024 and make them “fear war”.

Beijing maintains that Taiwan, which is self-governing, is part of its territory.

Mr Lai has previously described himself as a “practical worker for Taiwan independence”. He is the front runner to be the island’s next president in the January election.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday in Paraguay, where he arrived via New York, he said such US transits were routine and China had no cause to use them as an excuse to “verbally and militarily intimidate Taiwan”.

“If China uses the transits as an excuse to again launch verbal and military intimidation or other threatening methods, it just confirms international media reports that China is attempting to intervene in Taiwan’s election with military threats,” the island’s official Central News Agency cited Mr Lai as saying.

He said he had confidence in Taiwan’s people.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry on Tuesday said it had yet to see any large-scale Chinese manoeuvres near the island.

In April, China held war games around Taiwan after President Tsai Ing-wen returned from California, where she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on her way back from Central America.

China has denounced Mr Lai’s New York stop – he is due in San Francisco on Wednesday on his way back to Taipei.

Both Taiwan and America have sought to keep Mr Lai’s US stopovers low-key, and he has said there were “no special arrangements” to meet US officials.

Speaking at a conference in Moscow on Tuesday, Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu said “playing with fire on the Taiwan issue and trying to ‘control China with Taiwan’ is bound to end in failure”.

Mr Lai went to Paraguay for the inauguration of its new president. The South American state is one of only 13 nations to maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Mr Lai posted on Facebook pictures of him in the capital Asuncion shaking hands and chatting with US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Spain’s King Felipe VI and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who were there too.

China says Taiwan has no right to state-to-state ties and has been trying to pick off the island’s remaining diplomatic allies.

Honduras, once a stalwart friend of Taipei, switched ties to Beijing in March. REUTERS