Taiwan will not back down in the face of threats, V-P William Lai says on US trip

TAIPEI – Taiwan will not be afraid or back down in the face of authoritarian threats, the island’s Vice-President told supporters on

a United States visit that Beijing has condemned,

while reiterating a willingness to talk to China.

Mr William Lai, also front runner to be Taiwan’s next president at January elections, is in the US on what is officially

a transit stop on his way to Paraguay

for the inauguration of its new president.

Paraguay is one of only 13 countries to maintain formal ties with Taiwan.

Taipei and Washington both say the stopovers, including one in San Francisco on the way back, are routine, but China has denounced them and called Mr Lai a separatist “troublemaker”.

Mr Lai told supporters at a lunch in New York on Sunday that “if Taiwan is safe, the world is safe, if the Taiwan Strait is peaceful, then the world is peaceful”, according to Taiwan’s presidential office. “No matter how great the threat of authoritarianism is to Taiwan, we absolutely will not be scared nor cower, we will uphold the values of democracy and freedom,” he said.

China has a particular dislike of Mr Lai, who has previously described himself as a “practical worker for Taiwan independence”.

That is a red line for Beijing, which views Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified, by force if necessary.

Mr Lai, who has pledged to maintain peace and the status quo, reiterated in New York that on the basis of dignity and parity he was “very willing” to talk to China and seek peace and stability. 

But Mr Lai said he will protect Taiwan’s sovereignty, that only Taiwan’s people can decide their future and that the Republic of China – Taiwan’s formal name – and the People’s Republic of China are “not subordinate to each other”.

Mr Lai’s speech was attended by Ms Ingrid Larson, managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan, a US government-run non-profit that carries out unofficial relations with Taiwan.

Both Taipei and Washington are aiming for the US stopovers to be low-key, and have called on Beijing not to take any provocative action in response.

Still, Taiwanese officials say China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using Mr Lai’s US stopovers as a pretext to intimidate voters ahead of 2024’s election and make them “fear war”.

On Monday, the Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army, which has responsibility for the area around Taiwan, showed pictures on its WeChat account of troops practising storming a beach, though it did not give the location, timing or specifically mention Taiwan. 

It said the soldiers guided armoured vehicles “to the enemy front line positions and launched a fierce attack”. 

China carried out war games around Taiwan in April after the island’s President Tsai Ing-wen returned from California, where she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. She was also on a transit stop while visiting Central America. REUTERS