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China taking advantage of Taiwan’s openness, warns Tsai
TAIPEI, Jan 1, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – China’s manipulation of Taiwan’s democratic
openness is the biggest threat to the island’s security, President Tsai Ing-
wen said Tuesday, as she called on Beijing to seek peaceful means to solve
their differences.
Relations between China and Taiwan have spent two years in the doldrums
since the election of Tsai, who has refused to acknowledge Beijing’s stance
that the island is part of “one China”.
Tsai’s comments came a day before Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to
give a landmark speech on Taiwan. It will be closely watched on the island
where many have been rattled by the Chinese leader’s increasingly muscular
rhetoric.
Beijing still sees democratic Taiwan as part of its territory to be
reunified by force if necessary, despite the two sides being ruled separately
since the end of a civil war on the mainland in 1949.
China has cut off official communication with Tsai’s government and
stepped up military and diplomatic pressure.
In a New Year’s Day speech, Tsai called for Beijing to come to the table
but she warned that Taiwan’s people would never give up the kind of freedoms
unseen on the authoritarian mainland.
“What we need is for the two sides to understand and face the reality that
both sides are fundamentally different in their values, lifestyles, and
political system,” she said.
Beijing, she added, “must respect the insistence of 23 million people for
freedom and democracy” and “must use peaceful and equal terms to handle our
differences”.
She also accused the Chinese government and businesses of taking advantage
of Taiwan’s open society.
“Taiwan’s biggest challenge at the moment is especially from China…
where it is using our (Taiwan’s) democratic system of openness and freedom,”
she said, citing an influx of viral fake news about Taiwan from the mainland
as one example.
She also said China had not kept Taiwan adequately informed of African
swine fever outbreaks, something she said could hurt local businesses and sow
mistrust.
Xi’s speech on Wednesday marks the 40th anniversary of the “Message to
Compatriots in Taiwan”, an open letter from China’s communist rulers during
the reformist Deng Xiaoping era which led to a warming of cross-strait ties.
But Xi has adopted a markedly more confrontational foreign policy in
recent years and frequently refers to his desire to unite Taiwan with the
mainland soon.
While Tsai has refused to recognise Beijing’s “one China” policy she has
walked a careful path within her own party, where some members openly
advocate Taiwan declaring independence — a major red line for China.
In her New Year’s speech she reiterated that her government was open to
direct talks.
Tsai’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party received a bloody nose in local
polls in November and she faces a presidential election in 2020.
The main opposition Kuomintang party won a string of key mayoralties in
the November ballot and favours much friendlier ties with Beijing.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1110 hrs