Taiwan details China drills, V-P William Lai says election not China’s to call
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The Chinese air force planes included Su-30 and J-11 fighter jets.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
TAIPEI – Taiwan’s election in 2024 is a choice between democracy and autocracy, Vice-President William Lai said in comments broadcast after China carried out military drills around the island in anger at his visiting the United States
Mr Lai, the front runner in polls to be Taiwan’s next president at the January 2024 election, made brief stopovers in the US in August on his way to and from Paraguay, prompting fury in Beijing, which views him as a dangerous separatist, given China’s territorial claims over the island.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday morning that in the past 24 hours, 25 Chinese air force planes had crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line, which had served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides until Chinese military aircraft began regularly crossing it a year ago.
They included Su-30 and J-11 fighter jets, according to a map the ministry published, though there was no immediate sign that China was continuing its exercises on Sunday.
Taiwanese officials had said China was likely to conduct military exercises near the island, using Mr Lai’s US stopovers as a pretext to intimidate voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election and make them “fear war”.
In an interview broadcast late on Saturday with a Taiwanese television station, but conducted while he was in New York the previous weekend, Mr Lai said it was not up to China to decide who wins the election.
“It’s not who China likes today, and then they can assume the post. This goes against the spirit of Taiwan’s democracy, and represents huge damage to Taiwan’s democratic system,” he said.
China should not “make a fuss over nothing” when it comes to foreign travel by Taiwanese leaders, Mr Lai said.
“My position is that Taiwan is not a part of the People’s Republic of China. We are willing to link up with the international community and talk to China under the guarantee of security.”
China has for many years wanted to “annex” Taiwan and this is not something that started under the ruling Democratic Progressive Party government, he said, pointing to battles along the Chinese coast in the 1950s that saw China seize Taiwan-controlled islets.
“This election is not a choice between peace and war. We can’t order off a menu, choosing peace and then there’s peace, choosing war and then there’s war. That’s not the case. What it is is that we have the right to choose whether we want democracy or autocracy. This is the real choice we have to make in this election.”
China has demanded that Taiwan’s government accept both sides of the Taiwan Strait are part of “one China”, which it has refused to do.
Lower-key drills
China’s Saturday drills were much more low-key than two rounds of war games around Taiwan in August 2022 and again in April.
China and the United States are now trying to re-engage, especially as Chinese and US leaders may meet at a regional summit in San Francisco later in the year.
Singapore-based defence analyst Alexander Neill, an adjunct fellow of Hawaii’s Pacific Forum think-tank, said it appeared that China had calibrated the scale of the drills to make a point, but not to upset broader diplomatic efforts.
“I think after recent bilateral engagement China probably doesn’t want to rock the boat too much before Apec in San Francisco,” said Mr Neill, referring to the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
China’s Eastern Theatre Command, on its official WeChat account, posted a short video clip late on Saturday of a map of Taiwan superimposed with three slogans: “Relying on the US is an evil road”, “Seeking independence is a dead end”, and “Reunification is the right road”.
Taiwan’s navy on Sunday released video footage of its sailors on the guided missile frigate Tian Dan shadowing the Chinese frigate Xuzhou.
It said the footage was taken on Saturday in the seas to Taiwan’s south.
Taiwan’s military also released pictures of one of its fighter jets taking off and a pilot checking a missile underneath an aircraft.
The US urged China on Saturday to stop pressuring Taiwan.
“We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan,” a US State Department spokesman told Reuters in a statement.
The US would continue to monitor the exercises closely, the department said. REUTERS
