Taiwan President is escalating tensions, says China ahead of key speech

BEIJING/TAIPEI - Taiwan President Lai Ching-te is escalating tensions with “sinister intentions”, China’s government said, ahead of a keynote speech Mr Lai will give in Taipei that could set off a Chinese military response.

Mr Lai, who took office in May after winning an election in January,

is detested by China, which calls him a “separatist”. Beijing claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a view that Mr Lai and his government reject.

Responding late on Oct 8 to comments Mr 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.

Mr 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,” the Office added.

Mr Lai will give his main national day speech on Oct 10, 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 Mr Lai's speech as a pretext to pressure the island to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials say.

A US State Department spokesperson said it 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 Oct 9 reiterated its objections to US weapons sales to Taiwan, after the Biden administration approved US$567 million (S$739 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 Oct 6.

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 in September.

Taiwan’s Defence 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.

Mr Lai says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, and has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but has been rebuffed.

China staged “punishment” war games around Taiwan shortly after Mr Lai’s May inauguration. REUTERS