It is China’s “priority” to stop Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, from visiting the US next month, China’s ambassador in Washington said on Wednesday, as Beijing steps up its warnings against the trip.
In most opinion polls Lai is the front-runner of the presidential election, which is to be held in January.
Lai is making what are officially stopovers in the US on his way to and from Paraguay for the inauguration of its new president on Aug. 15, and it is drawing anger from Beijing which calls Lai “a separatist.”
Photo: Xinhua via AP
Chinese ambassador Xie Feng (謝鋒) told the Aspen Security Forum that “Taiwan is China’s Taiwan” and that the country wanted a peaceful “reunification,” but Taiwanese “separatists” were advancing their agenda, seeking US support.
“They even do not admit they are Chinese. So this is a very dangerous path they are taking,” Xie said.
“Provocative” moves by Taiwan “separatists” should be contained, he said. “Now the priority for us is to stop William Lai Ching-te from visiting the US, which is like a grey rhino charging at us.”
A “grey rhino” event refers to a highly obvious yet ignored threat.
Defense ministry said that on Thursday it had detected 22 Chinese warplanes around Taiwan, some of which crossed the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, while seven Chinese warships carried out “combat readiness patrols.”
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the government have repeatedly offered talks with China but been rejected, as Beijing views them as separatists. Both President Tsai and Vice President Lai say only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
American Institute in Taiwan Director Sandra Oudkirk said on Wednesday that there was no reason for China to take “provocative” action in response to Lai’s stopovers in the US, and that such transits have happened for many years and are routine.
In August last year and then again in April this year, China staged large-scale war games around Taiwan, as responses to a visit to Taiwan of then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Tsai in April meeting US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles, while she was transiting back from a visit to Central America.
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