Taiwan's new president grapples with China
16 أيار 2024 07:31
Lai Ching-te takes office as Taiwan's president on Monday, facing a China that calls him a "dangerous separatist" and has ramped up military drills, as well as a fractured parliament at home where no party has a majority.
Lai, vice president for the past four years, succeeds President Tsai Ing-wen at a time Beijing has been increasing military and political pressure to assert sovereignty - a claim he and Tsai reject - over democratically governed Taiwan.
In the run-up to Lai's election victory in January, Beijing repeatedly denounced him as a supporter of Taiwan's formal independence, framing the vote as a choice between war and peace.
China says any move by Taiwan to declare formal independence would be grounds to attack the island.
The government in Taipei says Taiwan is already an independent country, the Republic of China, and that it does not plan to change that. The Republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists.
Lai, 64, widely known by his English name William, has offered talks with China many times, including this week, which Beijing has rebuffed.
He says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
Beijing will be closely watching the inaugural speech by Lai, a doctor by training and son of a coal miner, at the Japanese-colonial era presidential office in central Taipei.
Puma Shen, a lawmaker for Lai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who sits on parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee, says Lai wants to show Taiwan is not a "troublemaker" and is looking for peace.
"But no matter what he says during the inauguration, China will always disagree," Shen said.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office, asked on Wednesday about Lai's speech and how China would respond, said the "Taiwan region's new leader" had to make a clear choice between peaceful development or confrontation.
"Taiwan independence is incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait," spokesperson Chen Binhua told reporters.
Since Lai's win, China has maintained pressure on Taiwan but has avoiding mentioning Lai by name, unlike in the run-up to the vote, when it called him and his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim, formerly Taiwan's de facto ambassador to Washington, an "independence double act".
In the days leading up to Lai's inauguration, China has escalated its daily military activities, including staging mock attacks on foreign vessels near Taiwan, sources say.
Taiwan is expecting high-level foreign delegations for the inauguration, including former U.S. officials sent by President Joe Biden, in a show of international support from other democracies.
Although it is Taiwan's most important arms supplier and international backer, Washington transferred diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 1979. Only 12 countries now formally recognise Taiwan diplomatically, mostly poorer developing nations like Guatemala, Haiti, Palau and Eswatini.
Lai, vice president for the past four years, succeeds President Tsai Ing-wen at a time Beijing has been increasing military and political pressure to assert sovereignty - a claim he and Tsai reject - over democratically governed Taiwan.
In the run-up to Lai's election victory in January, Beijing repeatedly denounced him as a supporter of Taiwan's formal independence, framing the vote as a choice between war and peace.
China says any move by Taiwan to declare formal independence would be grounds to attack the island.
The government in Taipei says Taiwan is already an independent country, the Republic of China, and that it does not plan to change that. The Republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists.
Lai, 64, widely known by his English name William, has offered talks with China many times, including this week, which Beijing has rebuffed.
He says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
Beijing will be closely watching the inaugural speech by Lai, a doctor by training and son of a coal miner, at the Japanese-colonial era presidential office in central Taipei.
Puma Shen, a lawmaker for Lai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who sits on parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee, says Lai wants to show Taiwan is not a "troublemaker" and is looking for peace.
"But no matter what he says during the inauguration, China will always disagree," Shen said.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office, asked on Wednesday about Lai's speech and how China would respond, said the "Taiwan region's new leader" had to make a clear choice between peaceful development or confrontation.
"Taiwan independence is incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait," spokesperson Chen Binhua told reporters.
Since Lai's win, China has maintained pressure on Taiwan but has avoiding mentioning Lai by name, unlike in the run-up to the vote, when it called him and his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim, formerly Taiwan's de facto ambassador to Washington, an "independence double act".
In the days leading up to Lai's inauguration, China has escalated its daily military activities, including staging mock attacks on foreign vessels near Taiwan, sources say.
Taiwan is expecting high-level foreign delegations for the inauguration, including former U.S. officials sent by President Joe Biden, in a show of international support from other democracies.
Although it is Taiwan's most important arms supplier and international backer, Washington transferred diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 1979. Only 12 countries now formally recognise Taiwan diplomatically, mostly poorer developing nations like Guatemala, Haiti, Palau and Eswatini.