Wed, May 21, 2025 page1

• Lai cautious, but welcomes dialogue

  ACROSS THE DIVIDE: The president said he was willing to work with China toward peace and prosperity, and to hold a national security briefing with opposition parties

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday in a speech marking one year in office struck a conciliatory tone by calling for a national security meeting with opposition party leaders, while reiterating his openness to engaging in dialogue with Beijing.

  “The aggressor is the one that undermines peace,” Lai said of China after his anniversary speech.

  “Many countries around the world, including Taiwan, are in fact under the threat of aggressors,” he said.

  

  President William Lai gives a speech at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday on the first anniversary of his inauguration.

  Photo: CNA

  “I, too, am committed to peace, because peace is priceless and war has no winners. But when it comes to seeking peace, we cannot have dreams or illusions,” he said.

  The president was responding to a reporter’s question about cross-strait tensions and China launching large-scale military exercises around Taiwan whenever Lai delivered key speeches over the past year.

  Since Lai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office on May 20 last year, Beijing has also intensified its “gray zone” tactics — coercive actions that stop short of direct military conflict or war — including the alleged sabotage of undersea cables by Chinese vessels.

  Lai has toughened his cross-strait policy in the past few months, drawing a difference from the more moderate approach adopted by his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

  In March, he described China as a “foreign hostile force” when he accused it of increasing infiltrations, spying activities and “united front” work against Taiwan, and pledged multiple measures in response to those national security threats.

  The pledged measures include reinstating military courts, tightening controls on cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two sides, and expanding the screening of cross-strait flows of talent, goods and capital.

  Despite his branding of China as an “aggressor,” Lai yesterday reiterated his openness to continuing exchanges and collaboration with Beijing provided that each side treats the other equally and with respect.

  He said he remained willing to “engage in dialogue instead of confrontation,” and work with China toward peace and prosperity.

  Lai also said he would instruct the national security team to hold a “national security briefing” with opposition party leaders amid protracted tensions and disputes between his administration and the opposition-led legislature.

  The meeting would be held with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌).

  Lai said he hoped both sides would set aside their political differences, candidly exchange views on matters of national interest and security, and jointly address various challenges facing Taiwan.

  The president did not elaborate on what those challenges might be, but his first year in office has been plagued by political gridlock between the DPP government and the legislature.

  In a social media post, Chu, despite noting that Lai’s overtures had taken a full year to arrive, signaled his willingness to talk with the DPP government, citing public expectations for the parties to work toward resolving their disputes.

  In addition, Chu called for a mechanism to be set up that would enable both sides to have substantive discussions about challenges faced by Taiwan, rather than a one-off meeting.

  The TPP said in a separate statement that talks between ruling and opposition party leaders should take place without any preconditions, allowing both camps to engage in open and meaningful discussion.

  The statement did not mention whether Huang would be willing to participate.

  Although Lai and Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) have each met with Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT and other senior opposition figures over the past year in what they described as efforts to tackle domestic political challenges, the talks have failed to yield any significant breakthroughs.

  Lai, who had made little public comment on the recall campaigns targeting KMT members, yesterday said that they were not driven by enmity, but rather the active political participation of the younger generation seeking to “protect the nation [and] further entrench democracy.”

  China’s Taiwan Affairs Office called Lai’s speech a “two-faced tactic” that is a “waste of effort and doomed to fail.”

  “No matter what the leaders of the Taiwan region say or how they say it, it cannot change the fact that Taiwan is part of China ... nor can it stop the inevitable trend of national reunification,” office spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said in a statement.

  Additional reporting by Reuters
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