Taiwan is not choosing between the US and China in next year’s presidential election, it is “choosing between democracy and dictatorship” and “friends and enemies,” Vice President and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate William Lai (賴清德) told supporters at a rally in Taipei yesterday.
Lai maintains a significant lead in the polls over his rivals Taiwan People’s Party’s Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT).
“Opposition parties have framed next year’s presidential election as the choice between war and peace, but we must first see if what they propose can achieve peace, or are they simply using war with China as a scare tactic,” Lai said.
Photo: CNA
“They [opposition parties] accept the so-called ‘1992 consensus,’ want to give up Taiwan’s sovereignty and return to ‘one China.’ However, there is no democracy, freedom and maintaining our way of life without sovereignty. Their way of pursuing peace would be useless and would end up leading to war,” he added.
The “1992 consensus” — a term that former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
“We have the Western democratic camp standing by our side, even though we are facing a threat from China. Once we give up our sovereignty and accept the ‘one China’ principle, China could invade Taiwan... It used the same rationale to justify the suppression of democratic uprising in Hong Kong triggered by the introduction of an anti-extradition bill. There would be nothing that the international community could do about it,” Lai said.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
He said he has two goals as president: to build a healthy Taiwan and to uphold democracy and the nation’s sovereignty, adding that real peace could be achieved by shoring up Taiwan’s defense capabilities and standing side by side with allies to deter China.
“Sun Zi (孫子) wrote in the Art of War that the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. We should not shrink back, accept the ‘one China’ principle and vote for a presidential candidate who would bring a tragic fate to Taiwan because of mounting pressure from a regional hegemony,” he said.
Separately, Hou was unable to meet with former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味), a key opinion leader in the south, as Chang was out of town on a prescheduled trip.
Hou said that he and Chang share the same goal of helping the KMT win back the presidency.
Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Li-shan (張麗善), who is also Chang Jung-wei’s younger sister, said that it is time for KMT members to put aside their differences and stand united with Hou to vote the DPP out of office.
Meanwhile, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) dismissed a rumor that the party planned to use the appointment of legislators-at-large as bargaining chips to force speakers of city or county councils who supported Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) bid for presidency to endorse Hou.
“More than 60 percent of the people in Taiwan want the DPP out of office. If there is a division within the KMT or within opposition parties, which gives the DPP and Lai an easy ride to the presidency, we would surely disappoint them in their hopes of achieving cross-strait peace,” he said, adding that all council speakers share this goal, but have different strategies.
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