An Air Force aircraft takes part in military drills by the Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) around Taiwan, in this screengrab from a handout video released August 19, 2023. Eastern Theatre Command/Handout via REUTERS/ File Photo
TAIPEI — Taiwan’s election next year is a choice between democracy and autocracy, Vice President William Lai said in comments broadcast after China carried out military drills around the island in anger at his visit this month to the United States.
Lai, the front-runner in polls to be Taiwan’s next president at elections in January, made brief stopovers in the United States this month on his way to and from Paraguay, prompting fury in Beijing, which views him as a dangerous separatist given China’s territorial claims over the island.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Sunday morning that in the past 24 hours 25 Chinese air force planes had crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line, which had served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides until Chinese military aircraft began regularly crossing it a year ago.
That included Su-30 and J-11 fighter jets, according to a map the ministry published, though there was no immediate sign China was continuing its exercises on Sunday.
Taiwanese officials had said China was likely to conduct military exercises near the island, using Lai’s U.S. stopovers as a pretext to intimidate voters ahead of next year’s presidential election and make them “fear war”.
In an interview broadcast late Saturday with a Taiwanese television station but conducted while he was in New York last weekend, Lai said it was not up to China to decide who wins the election.
“It’s not who China likes today, and then they can assume the post. This goes against the spirit of Taiwan’s democracy, and represents huge damage to Taiwan’s democratic system,” he said.
China should not “make a fuss over nothing” when it comes to foreign travel by Taiwanese leaders, Lai said.
“My position is that Taiwan is not a part of the People’s Republic of China. We are willing to link up with the international community and talk to China under the guarantee of security.”
China has for many years wanted to “annex” Taiwan and this is not something that started under the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, he said, pointing to battles along the Chinese coast in the 1950s when China seized Taiwan-controlled islets.
“This election is not a choice between peace and war. We can’t order off a menu, choosing peace and then there’s peace, choosing war and then there’s war. That’s not the case. What it is is that we have the right to choose whether we want democracy or autocracy. This is the real choice we have to make in this election.”
China has demanded that Taiwan’s government accept that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are part of “one China”, but it has refused.
Lower-key drills
China’s Saturday drills were much more low-key than two rounds of war games around Taiwan last August and again in April this year. China and the United States are now trying to re-engage, especially as Chinese and U.S. leaders may meet at a regional summit in San Francisco later in the year.
Singapore-based defense analyst Alexander Neill said it appeared China had calibrated the scale of the drills to make a point but not to upset broader diplomatic efforts.
“I think after recent bilateral engagement China probably doesn’t want to rock the boat too much before APEC in San Francisco,” said Neill, an adjunct fellow of Hawaii’s Pacific Forum think-tank.
Still, China has made clear its strong dislike of Lai and its unwillingness to back down over Taiwan, including with state media commentaries lambasting Lai as a “liar” and “separatist”.
China’s Eastern Theatre Command, on its official WeChat account, posted a short video clip late on Saturday of a map of Taiwan superimposed with three slogans: “Relying on the U.S. is an evil road”, “Seeking independence is a dead end” and “Reunification is the right road”.
Taiwan’s navy on Sunday released video footage of its sailors on the guided missile frigate Tian Dan shadowing the Chinese frigate Xuzhou, which it said was taken on Saturday in the seas to Taiwan’s south.
Taiwan’s military also released pictures of one of its fighter jets taking off and a pilot checking a missile underneath an aircraft.
The U.S. urged China on Saturday to stop pressuring Taiwan.
“We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan,” a State Department spokesperson told Reuters in a statement.
The U.S. would continue to monitor the exercises closely, the statement said.