Taiwan’s leading presidential candidate William Lai Ching-te has been accused of “betraying the totality of the Chinese nation” in an opinion piece provided by China’s embassy in Washington that was published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
The article, credited to embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu, was Beijing’s response to an earlier comment piece from Lai published in the same paper on July 4.
Lai, who was nominated in April by Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to run for the island’s top post, is currently Taiwan’s vice-president.
In his opinion piece, the 63-year-old front runner in the 2024 election stressed pragmatism and consistency as his top priorities if he won the presidential race.
“I will support the cross-strait status quo – which is in the best interests of both the Republic of China, as Taiwan is formally known, and the international community,” he wrote.
Analysts have said the article – published on America’s Independence Day – was intended to reassure Washington that he would not provoke trouble if elected.
Liu, however, argued that Lai’s support for “the cross-strait status quo” was actually support for “so-called ‘peaceful separation’ and ‘one China, one Taiwan.’”
Taiwan’s would-be leader said he has no plans to declare independence, and offered a “four-pillar plan for peace” to ensure stability on the self-ruled island, which the embassy said was only a plan to “sell out Taiwan to the US” and “show his loyalty to his American patron”.
Lai’s election platform includes building up Taiwan’s deterrence in the face of growing military threats from Beijing, ensuring the island remains a hi-tech powerhouse, ensuring supply chain security, forming partnerships with democracies around the world, and promoting “steady and principled” cross-strait leadership.
In Tuesday’s piece, however, Beijing said Lai’s proposal to “build up Taiwan’s deterrence” was in reality a way to “resist by force the motherland’s reunification”.
“Squandering 2.6 per cent of local GDP [to purchase US weaponry], the DPP is turning the island into a powder keg,” Liu wrote.
Beijing also said Lai’s claim that he would “never rule out the possibility of dialogue without preconditions, based on the principles of reciprocity and dignity” was “an old camouflage to deny the one-China principle” and one that does not serve the interest of peace.
Beijing regards Taiwan as a breakaway province to be reunited, by force, if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent country, but oppose any unilateral change to the status quo by force.
“No one should underestimate the resolve of the Chinese people to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Liu concluded. “The DPP’s attempt to sell out Taiwan is despicable. Seeking independence is doomed to fail.”
Op-eds in major American newspapers have become battlefields for Taiwan’s presidential candidates who want to ensure their messages reach the US audience.
On Monday, Taiwanese billionaire and founder of Foxconn Terry Gou published a piece in The Washington Post.
Though he has not yet announced a presidential run as an independent, he has touted a one-China framework and has slammed the ruling DPP, which experts have said implied he was positioning himself as the more suitable person to better manage the cross-strait ties.
Asked on Wednesday if China would launch any military drills in the Taiwan Strait over Lai’s planned stopover in the US in mid-August en route to Paraguay, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said: “China firmly opposes any form of official US-Taiwan interactions, firmly opposes Taiwan independence separatists visiting the US under any name or reason and firmly opposes the US indulging and supporting Taiwan independence separatists and their separatist actions in any form.”
She also told the press briefing in Beijing: “China will pay close attention to the development of the situation and take resolute and forceful measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”