Beijing detests Lai, branding him a “separatist”, and has rejected multiple offers of talks by him.
A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, asked on Friday about the potential for war games, said the Taiwan issue was the “core of China’s core interests”.
“It is the first red line that cannot be crossed in Sino-US relations, and China’s determination to defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering,” Lin Jian told a routine news conference in Beijing.
Lai rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future and that Taiwan has a right to engage with the rest of the world.
Lai reiterated that while Taiwan wants engagement with China, he cannot have any illusions about peace and that Taiwan must continue to strengthen its defences.
Peace is priceless and there are no winners in a war, he added, repeating comments he made in Hawaii after visiting a memorial to the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
China has staged two rounds of war games around Taiwan so far this year, one in May shortly after Lai’s inauguration and another in October following his national day speech.
In Guam on Thursday, Lai spoke with US congressional leaders, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, ahead of Donald Trump returning to the White House on Jan 20.
Trump unnerved Taiwan during the US presidential campaign, saying the island “should pay us for defence” and that Taiwan had taken virtually all of the US semiconductor industry’s business.
Lai said Taiwan enjoys strong bipartisan support in the US and that he was optimistic that he can deepen ties with the incoming US administration.
“Taiwan is confident that we can continue to deepen cooperation with the new US government and resist the expansion of authoritarianism.”
Source: CNA
