FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Taiwan’s President Going Over the Top Against China
June 26, 2018 (EIRNS)—Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen gave an interview to AFP on June 25, denouncing Beijing as “expansionist” and a threat to the world. “This is not just Taiwan’s challenge,” Tsai said,
“it is a challenge for the region and the world as a whole, because today it’s Taiwan, but tomorrow it may be any other country that will have to face the expansion of China’s influence.... Their democracy, freedom, and freedom to do business will one day be affected by China.... We need to work together to reaffirm our values of democracy and freedom in order to constrain China and also minimize the expansion of their hegemonic influence.”
This comes in the wake of the massive campaign in the West over the past months to portray China as aggressive, intending to take over Asia—or even the world—through the Belt and Road, and “militarizing” the South China Sea and ports around the world. It also come in the wake of Panama and the Dominican Republic’s dropping their diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor of Beijing, with more to come.
Tsai has refused since her election in 2016 to acknowledge the 1992 Consensus, in which both sides acknowledged “One China with two systems,” but this outburst is the most extreme.
Tsai said she would be willing to meet with Xi Jinping, but without preconditions—meaning she will not acknowledge “One China.” She pointed to the Singapore summit, claiming she should not have to concede on One China.
Global Times’ lead editorial today is titled: “Behind Taiwan Leader’s Ravings Is Panic.” It calls the interview
“one of Tsai’s fiercest attacks against the mainland since she came into office. Different from the past, Tsai described cross-Straits affairs as the mainland’s confrontation against the democratic world, urged the West to jointly contain the mainland and openly sold Taiwan as leverage for exterior forces to intervene in China’s domestic issues. Tsai has maintained her political hypocrisy. She refused to acknowledge the 1992 Consensus, and as a result, all official communication across the Straits halted. Yet, Tsai talked glibly about her wish for a meeting with the mainland’s leader, which is impossible.”
They say that Tsai has panicked “following a series of failures.” They also say that Tsai’s administration “has pinned all its hopes on the international community, or more precisely, the U.S. Washington is using Taiwan as a cheap pawn.”
