Taiwan’s Tsai calls on Xi Jinping to dial back cross-strait tensions
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen uses national day speech to remind Chinese counterpart of his promise to ‘never seek hegemony’.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has appealed to her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to de-escalate military tensions and live up to his promise to “never seek hegemony” after months of Beijing ramping up fighter jet incursions.
In a speech on Taiwan’s national day on Saturday, Ms Tsai said the international community was becoming concerned about the “expanding hegemony” of China.
Beijing views democratic, self-ruling Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it back into fold.
Ms Tsai referenced a recent speech by Mr Xi to the UN that she said gave the Taiwanese some hope.
“I am also aware that the leader across the Strait (Mr Xi) has publicly stated in a video message to the UN General Assembly that China will never seek hegemony, expansion, or a sphere of influence … we hope this is the beginning of genuine change,” she said.
“We are committed to upholding cross-strait stability, but this is not something Taiwan can shoulder alone — it is the joint responsibility of both sides.”
Beijing’s bellicose stance towards Taiwan has increased dramatically under Mr Xi, who has described the island’s unification with the mainland as “inevitable”.
It is also a response to the election of Ms Tsai in 2016 and again earlier this year. Ms Tsai, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, views Taiwan as a sovereign country and rejects the idea that the island is part of “one China”.
Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office accused Ms Tsai of “extending confrontational thinking and antagonism to promote independence” in her speech, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
“We urge the DPP authority to stop any provocative word and action promoting independence and not to go further down the wrong road,” TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian told Xinhua.
The DPP would “only swallow its own evil fruits to collude with Western countries,” Ms Zhu warned.
Washington’s increased outreach to Taipei under US President Donald Trump has become another flashpoint with Beijing as US-China relations plunge to new lows.
China’s military has piled on pressure more than usual this year, sending its warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone at unprecedented frequency and sometimes crossing the so-called median line of the Taiwan Strait.
It conducted exercises near the Taiwan Strait when US Health Secretary Alex Axar visited the island last month — the highest-level US visit to Taipei since 1979.
A Chinese foreign ministry official has even said there was no such thing as the median line as “Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory”, sparking condemnations from Taipei.
On Saturday, Chinese jets entered Taiwan’s ADIZ for the eighth time this month and the fifth straight day this week, Taipei’s defence ministry said.
Ms Tsai pledged that Taiwan “will not act rashly” and would work to lower the risk of military conflict. “As long as the Beijing authorities are willing to resolve antagonisms and improve cross-strait relations … we are willing to work together to facilitate meaningful dialogue,” she said.
AFP
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