Latest news with #LaiChingTe
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Taiwan to simulate Chinese invasion in major drill
By Yimou Lee and Fabian Hamacher TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan will simulate a Chinese blockade and invasion of the democratic island in its annual military and civil defence drills next week, as President Lai Ching-te warned on Tuesday the island was already facing China's "war without gun smoke". The annual Han Kuang exercises starting on July 9 will last for 10 days and mobilize more than 22,000 reservists, both unprecedented in length and scale. Taiwan is facing ramped-up military pressure by China which considers the separately governed island as its own despite Taiwan's strong rejection. Addressing soldiers in a video ahead of Han Kuang, Lai said in recent years Taiwan has been constantly preparing for a "war without gun smoke" such as Chinese infiltration and disinformation attacks. "However, there is no need to worry because the democratic, free, and prosperous Taiwan of today is the result of the Taiwanese people's courage, conviction, and action in fighting their way through various challenges, and the unity and resilience of the Taiwanese people has been demonstrated." Tung Chih-hsing, head of the defence ministry's joint combat planning department, said drill scenarios included "joint fire attack and the sea ferry of the landing group by the Communist Army" and Taiwan's armed forces will practice building up a "chain of strikes" with naval and air precision attacks. "We are demonstrating our determination and ability to defend ourselves with practical actions," Tung told a press briefing in Taipei, adding the armed forces will upgrade its combat readiness level if China launches "targeted drills" in response. Civil defence drills will be held alongside Han Kuang, including issuing missile alerts and evacuation drills that will temporarily shut business and suspend traffic in major cities including the capital Taipei. China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Lai has since June given three speeches in what will be a series of 10 on "uniting the country" ahead of a July 26 recall vote for around one quarter of parliament's lawmakers - all from the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party. Beijing had angrily rebuked some of Lai's recent remarks as the two capitals clashed over their competing interpretations of history in an escalating war of words over what Beijing views as provocations from Taiwan's government. Civil groups involved in the recall campaign has framed the election as a no-confidence vote against what they see as Beijing-friendly lawmakers who are working to undermine Taiwan's democracy, a position strongly rejected by the KMT. (Reporting By Yimou Lee and Fabian Hamacher; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
China accuses Taiwan's president of spreading heresy
President Lai Ching-te has repeatedly said that only Taiwan's people can decide the island's future. (Taiwan's presidential office/AP pic) BEIJING : China yesterday accused Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te of 'heresy', hostility and provocation, after a speech in which he said the island is 'of course' a country and there is historical evidence and legal proof to back this up. Beijing says democratically governed Taiwan is 'sacred' Chinese territory that has belonged to China since ancient times, and that the island is one of its provinces with no right to be called a state. Lai and his government strongly reject that view, and have offered talks with China multiple times but have been rejected. China calls Lai a separatist. China's Taiwan affairs office, responding to Lai's Sunday evening speech, said he had intentionally distorted history to promote his Taiwan independence agenda and that the island has never been a country. 'It was a 'Taiwan independence' declaration that blatantly incited cross-strait confrontation, and a hodgepodge of 'Taiwan independence' fallacies and heresies full of errors and omissions,' it said in a statement. 'The fallacies fabricated by Lai Ching-te in contravention of history, reality and jurisprudence will only be swept into the rubbish heap of history.' Responding, Taiwan's China-policy making mainland affairs council said Lai was simply stating historical facts and Beijing's belief the island has been Chinese since ancient times and is not a country is 'just a fabricated lie without any basis'. 'We call on the Chinese communist authorities to face up to the fact that the Republic of China objectively exists and the status quo in the Taiwan Strait that 'the two sides are not subordinate to each other',' it added in a statement. In 1949, the Republic of China government fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists, and that remains the island's formal name. Lai has repeatedly said that only Taiwan's people can decide their future, and that, as the People's Republic of China has never ruled the island, it has no right to claim it or speak on its behalf. Taiwan has over the past five years faced stepped-up military and political pressure from China, including war games.
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Taiwan is ‘of course' a country, president says in rebuke to China
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te and his government strongly reject China's sovereignty claims. (AP pic) TAIPEI : Taiwan is 'of course' a country and China lacks both the historical evidence and legal proof to back up its sovereignty claims, president Lai Ching-te said today in a strong rebuke to Beijing and its stepped up political and military pressure. China says democratically-governed Taiwan is 'sacred' Chinese territory that has belonged to the country since ancient times, and that the island is one of its provinces with no right to be called a state. Lai and his government strongly reject that view, and have offered talks with China multiple times but have been rejected. China calls Lai a 'separatist'. Giving the first of 10 speeches in a series called 'uniting the country', Lai drew on Taiwan's history, including the millennia-long connection of its indigenous people to other Austronesians, like native Hawaiians, to show what he said was Taiwan's separate and distinct development from China. Taiwan's people have a record of opposing invasion, like uprisings against Japan's 1895-1945 colonial rule, and under the last imperial Chinese dynasty, the Qing, Taiwan was only considered a Chinese province for eight years, he added. 'Of course Taiwan is a country,' he said at a speech to a Taiwan branch of Rotary International, pointing also to its presidential elections. 'But China says no, that Taiwan is not a sovereign country.' China's Taiwan's affairs office did not respond to a request for comment outside of office hours. China says the 1971 UN resolution, which took away Taipei's seat in the body and gave it to Beijing, is one of the legal bases of its claims. Lai, who in March called China a 'hostile foreign force', said it was 'totally wrong' for Beijing to say that UN resolution had anything to do with Taiwan's sovereignty as it was only about which government was represented at the body. China's threat to Taiwan is real, added Lai, pointing to its daily military activities around the island. 'Taiwan's future can only be decided by its 23 million people – does everyone approve of this?' he said, to a round of applause. The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists, and that remains the island's formal name.
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Taiwan pursues homegrown Chinese spies as Beijing's influence grows
Civil servants found with other identification cards risk losing their Taiwanese citizenship. (EPA Images pic) TAIPEI : Taiwan is vetting hundreds of thousands of military service members, public school teachers and civil servants in a bid to root out potential homegrown Chinese sympathisers, as Beijing intensifies espionage on the island. Alarm is growing in Taiwan over the extent of China's infiltration on the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims is part of its territory and has threatened to seize by force. Prosecutors last week charged four recently expelled members of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party – including a former staffer in President Lai Ching-te's office – for sharing state secrets with Beijing. While Taipei and Beijing have spied on each other for decades, analysts warn the threat to Taiwan is more serious given the risk of a Chinese attack. The main targets of Chinese infiltration have been retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology. Lai, an outspoken defender of Taiwan's sovereignty and loathed by Beijing, has branded China a 'foreign hostile force' and sought to raise public awareness about Chinese actions he says threaten national security. After a sharp rise in the number of people prosecuted for spying for China in recent years, the government is trying to identify people within its own departments, military and public schools with a possible allegiance to Beijing. Anyone on the public service payroll found with Chinese residence or other identification cards risks losing their Taiwanese household registration, effectively their citizenship. 'The reason we started to survey (for Chinese IDs) is because China uses this way to coerce Taiwanese people, to penetrate our system, especially the public service,' DPP lawmaker Wang Ting-yu told AFP. 'The threat is getting worse and worse and we have to deal with that.' In the first round held recently, 371,203 people, or nearly all of those surveyed, signed statements declaring they did not hold any Chinese ID documents prohibited by Taiwanese law. Two people admitted having Chinese ID cards and 75 having residence permits, which were annulled, Taiwan's top policy body on China, the Mainland Affairs Council, said. The second round of vetting is underway, but the government has said the general public will not be targeted. Concern over Taiwanese people holding Chinese ID documents flared after a YouTube video last year alleged there were tens of thousands of cases. A senior Taiwanese security official said recently China was issuing ID papers to a growing number of people from Taiwan, but it was 'difficult to estimate' how many or track down offenders without Beijing's cooperation. 'The idea is to define Taiwanese citizens as Chinese citizens under their legal framework,' the official said. Legal scholar Su Yen-tu said there were limits on the government's 'investigatory power' to find out who held Chinese ID cards in Taiwan. If Taiwanese people did not voluntarily disclose the information, 'there's not much the government can do,' said Su, a research professor at Academia Sinica. Collecting records was still 'potentially useful', Jamestown Foundation president Peter Mattis told AFP, particularly if someone under investigation in the future is found to have lied about their documents. Taiwan has also asked around 10,000 Chinese spouses and their China-born children for proof they have given up their Chinese household registration, a decades-old requirement under Taiwanese law. The notices sparked criticism that the government was being heavy-handed, but Wang said stricter enforcement was needed because some 'new immigrants' from China had spied for Beijing and interfered in Taiwan's elections. 'I personally feel that it's a bit disturbing for the people,' said Li I-ching, a 23-year-old graduate student in Taipei, who was born in China to a Chinese mother and a Taiwanese father. Like many others, Li has to obtain evidence from China that she no longer holds permanent residence status. The Beijing-friendly main opposition Kuomintang party (KMT) has accused the government of conducting 'loyalty' tests. 'At a time when our country is facing so many difficulties… the government is only thinking about how to cleanse the population,' said KMT lawmaker Chen Yu-jen. The dispute between Taiwan and China dates back to 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist forces lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong's communist fighters and fled to the island. China has vowed to annex Taiwan and in recent years has ramped up its military pressure on the island. Taiwan says China also uses disinformation, cyberattacks and espionage to weaken its defences. 'It's a fight every day for the Taiwanese against this sort of stuff,' said Mark Harrison, a senior lecturer in Chinese studies at the University of Tasmania. 'I think their democracy has tremendous integrity, but it does have to be defended, and when you defend something, it certainly generates a lot of discourse, a lot of debate.'
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
UK's junior trade minister visits Taiwan
Douglas Alexander is set to meet President Lai Ching-te, reflecting the UK's long-standing unofficial ties with Taiwan. (AFP pic) LONDON : British junior trade minister Douglas Alexander is visiting Taiwan for talks on Sunday, the UK government said, on a trip that is aimed at boosting trade with Taipei but is likely to anger China. China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and strongly objects to any official interactions between the island and foreign governments, believing them to represent support for Taiwan's desire to be recognised as an independent country. Britain only has formal diplomatic relations with Beijing but maintains a de facto embassy in Taipei. Junior British ministers hold talks with their Taiwanese counterparts, but by convention senior ministers do not meet Taiwanese officials. Alexander's trip comes at a time when Britain and China are looking to mend ties, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer expected to visit Beijing this year on the first trip by a British leader since 2018. But despite those efforts, tensions remain. Last week, China's military criticised the sailing of a British warship through the Taiwan Strait as a deliberate attempt to 'cause trouble'. Alexander will be in Taiwan for annual trade talks on June 29-30, the department for business and brade said. He will witness the signing of UK-Taiwan trade partnership pillars and meet President Lai Ching-te as part of Britain's 'long-standing unofficial relationship' with Taiwan, it said. 'We share a long-standing trade relationship with Taiwan and our trade reached an all-time high last year, but we know there are still more opportunities for British businesses,' Alexander said in a statement.
