Asia-Pacific

China accuses Taiwan’s new president of stirring up tension

Beijing views the party as separatists that are risking war in the Taiwan Strait by building up the island’s defence forces, moving closer to the United States and flirting with Taiwanese independence

Mr Lai won January’s election to succeed Tsai Ing-wen, who served two terms as president and is also a member of the Democratic Progressive Party. Photograph: Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images

Denis Staunton in Taipei
Sun May 19 2024 - 21:01

Taiwan’s incoming president Lai Ching-te is expected to promise to maintain the status quo with mainland China when he is inaugurated in Taipei on Monday. But he is also expected to criticise Beijing’s military and diplomatic pressure on the self-governing island, including naval and air force activity close to its shores.

“Tomorrow’s peaceful transfer of power is a milestone for Taiwan’s democracy”, Mr Lai told a pre-inauguration reception in Taipei on Sunday.

Mr Lai won January’s election to succeed Tsai Ing-wen, who served two terms as president and is also a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Beijing views the party as separatists that are risking war in the Taiwan Strait by building up the island’s defence forces, moving closer to the United States and flirting with Taiwanese independence.

Mr Lai once described himself as a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence” but he has suggested more recently that a formal declaration of independence is unnecessary. Most countries, including the United States and the member-states of the European Union, follow a One China policy and do not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

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I also anticipate that Taiwan will continue to have all of your help in terms of maintaining regional peace, developing our economy, and international participation

—  Lai Ching-te - president-elect

The United States is sending a delegation of retired officials to Monday’s inauguration and although Lithuanian MEP Rasa Jukneviciene will attend, the EU will not be formally represented. Among the countries with diplomatic relations with Taiwan; Paraguay, Eswatini, Palau and the Marshall Islands will send their heads of state. Belize, Tuvalu and St Vincent and the Grenadines will be represented by their prime ministers and Guatemala is sending its foreign minister.

Mr Lai on Sunday thanked Taiwan’s international partners for their support for the island.

“I also anticipate that Taiwan will continue to have all of your help in terms of maintaining regional peace, developing our economy, and international participation,” he said.

Recalling that Taiwan had moved from a dictatorship to becoming a strong and vibrant democracy in the past few decades, Mr Lai said that he and vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim would build on the work of his popular predecessor Ms Tsai.

“Together we will continue to walk on the path of democracy and continue to engage with the world to make Taiwan stronger,” he said.

Beijing said last week that it will closely watch Mr Lai’s speech on Monday for what he says about cross-strait relations. Chen Binhua, a spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, accused the DPP of deliberately stirring up tensions between Taiwan and mainland China.

“We will not tolerate or condone this, nor will we turn a blind eye,” he said.

Mr Chen said Beijing would sanction five pundits who regularly appear on political talkshows on television. He said they had “deceived some people on the island, incited hostility and confrontation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and hurt the feelings of compatriots on both sides”.

Mr Lai won January’s election with 40 per cent of the vote, with 60 per cent of voters choosing candidates who favoured more engagement with Beijing. The DPP also lost its majority in the legislative yuan, Taiwan’s parliament, with the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) winning the speakership.

Parliamentarians engaged in a brawl on the floor of the legislature on Friday when the DPP tried to prevent the passage of a law that would give legislators greater scrutiny powers over the executive. The most controversial element in the proposed law would make officials who make false statements to parliament subject to criminal prosecution.

Lawmakers exchanged blows after a DPP member tried to snatch the bill’s documents to delay the procedure. Mr Lai later called for a rational debate on the matter to restore harmony and achieve consensus.

Denis Staunton

Denis Staunton

Denis Staunton is China Correspondent of The Irish Times

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