By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te urged China on Friday to “unclench its fists” and not take any unilateral actions, saying ahead of expected Chinese war games around the island that Beijing would not win any respect for military drills.
China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, is expected to launch another round of exercises in response to Lai’s trip to the Pacific, which has included stopovers in Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam, according to security sources.
Speaking to reporters in the Pacific Islands nation of Palau on the final day of his tour, Lai said he hoped China, which has condemned his visits to the United States, would return to the rules-based international order.
“It’s better to open your hands than to clench your fists. Only by doing so can China win respect from the international community,” Lai said in comments carried live on Taiwanese television.
“No matter how many military drills China stages and how many ships and aircraft they dispatch to intimidate regional countries, China will not win the respect from any country,” he added, urging Beijing to stop “unsettling and regrettable” unilateral actions.
Asked about possible Chinese drills, Lai said Taiwan’s engagement with the world “should not be used by authoritarian countries as an excuse for provocation”.
Taiwan’s government has a full grasp of the security situation in the region and has made the “best preparations” to ensure the security of the Taiwan Strait separating the island from China, he said.
Beijing detests Lai, branding him a “separatist”, and has rejected multiple offers of talks by him.
A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, asked on Friday about the potential for war games, said the Taiwan issue was the “core of China’s core interests”.
“It is the first red line that cannot be crossed in Sino-U.S. relations, and China’s determination to defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering,” Lin Jian told a routine news conference in Beijing.
Lai rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future and that Taiwan has a right to engage with the rest of the world.
Lai reiterated that while Taiwan wants engagement with China, he cannot have any illusions about peace and that Taiwan must continue to strengthen its defences.
Peace is priceless and there are no winners in a war, he added, repeating comments he made in Hawaii after visiting a memorial to the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
China has staged two rounds of war games around Taiwan so far this year, one in May shortly after Lai’s inauguration and another in October following his national day speech.
In Guam on Thursday, Lai spoke with U.S. congressional leaders, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, ahead of Donald Trump returning to the White House on Jan. 20.
Trump unnerved Taiwan during the U.S. presidential campaign, saying the island “should pay us for defence” and that Taiwan had taken virtually all of the U.S. semiconductor industry’s business.
Lai said Taiwan enjoys strong bipartisan support in the United States and that he was optimistic that he can deepen ties with the incoming U.S. administration.
“Taiwan is confident that we can continue to deepen cooperation with the new U.S. government and resist the expansion of authoritarianism.”
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Joe Cash in Beijing; Editing by William Mallard)
