We won’t let there be war with China, Taiwan V-P front runner Hsiao says

TAIPEI - Taiwan’s ruling party will not let war break out with China, but it is China that is to blame for stirring up tensions, said

Ms Hsiao Bi-khim

, Taipei’s former top diplomat in the United States and now front runner to become its next vice-president, on Dec 22.

The Jan 13 presidential and parliamentary elections will define Chinese-claimed Taiwan’s ties with Beijing, and are happening as China steps up military activities around the island to assert its sovereignty claims.

China has rebuked current Vice-President Lai Ching-te, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate

leading in the polls

, as a dangerous separatist and portrayed the vote as a choice between war and peace, something Taiwan’s main opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT) has echoed.

In a live televised pre-election policy address by the three vice-presidential candidates, Mr Lai’s running mate Hsiao said her opponents had consistently blamed the DPP for tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

“But the whole world knows that the real reason is that China has been expanding outward in an authoritarian posture in recent years, trying to change the existing international order and status quo. Even during the KMT’s rule, the expansion of China’s armaments never stopped,” Ms Hsiao said.

“We are strengthening our defences to avoid war. I want to declare to my compatriots that Lai Ching-te and Hsiao Bi-khim advocate defending the status quo of peace in the Taiwan Strait; we will not let war break out in the Taiwan Strait.”

Standing next to her on the stage, the KMT’s vice-presidential candidate, fiery media personality Jaw Shaw-kong, said his party was “absolutely not pro-China”.

“The DPP do not understand mainland China, and totally do not understand the Communist Party,” said Mr Jaw, whose party traditionally favours close ties with China.

“The DPP are using the China threat as a chip to get them elected, to dupe the electorate.”

Taiwan and China have to talk, Mr Jaw said, criticising the DPP for not doing so, and pledging the KMT would restart dialogue while also ensuring Taiwan’s defences.

President Tsai Ing-wen and her government, including Mr Lai and Ms Hsiao on the campaign trail, have repeatedly offered talks with China but been rebuffed.

China has denounced Mr Lai and Ms Hsiao as dangerous separatists and described the election as an “internal Chinese affair”.

Both the DPP and KMT say only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

Ms Cynthia Wu, the vice-presidential candidate for the small Taiwan People’s Party which is trailing in polls, made scant mention of China in her address, concentrating instead on domestic issues like the need to set up a sovereign wealth fund. REUTERS