Beijing wants to pick us off next, says Taiwan

China is trying to turn democratic Taiwan into another Hong Kong, the island’s foreign minister warned on Tuesday.

Alex Azar meets Joseph Wu in Taipei on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

China is trying to turn democratic Taiwan into another Hong Kong, the island’s foreign minister warned on Tuesday as he met with a senior US official making a historic diplomatic trip.

A crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong has caused alarm in Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory and has vowed to one day seize.

During a meeting with US Health Secretary Alex Azar in Taipei, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said Taiwan lived under the constant threat of having its freedoms taken away by China.

“Our lives have become increasingly difficult as China continues to pressure Taiwan into accepting its political conditions, conditions that will turn Taiwan into the next Hong Kong,” Mr Wu said.

Mr Azar is in Taipei for a three-day visit billed as the highest-level visit from the US since it switched diplomatic recognition from the island to China in 1979.

Beijing has ramped up diplomatic, military and economic pressure on Taiwan since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who won a second term earlier this year with a landslide.

She rejects Beijing’s stance that Taiwan is part of “one China” and instead views the island as “already independent”.

China has suggested Taiwan could be granted a version of the “one country, two systems” model it uses for Hong Kong, which supposedly guarantees certain liberties and autonomy from the authoritarian mainland. All mainstream political parties in Taiwan have rejected the proposal.

AFP