The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday called on Beijing to engage in dialogue with Taipei to preserve regional peace and stability after Beijing announced two days of military exercises around Taiwan, while the two main opposition parties called the drills intolerable.
China’s military exercises only demonstrate its authoritarian form of government, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) said, calling Beijing the “real troublemaker.”
Despite the international community’s focus on Taiwan, Beijing still announced “punishment” drills, showing that it is attempting to wreck the “status quo,” Wu said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
“Beijing is using the threat of war to undermine peace — an authoritarian government seeking to subvert democracy,” he said, calling on the Chinese government to halt its “unjustified actions.”
Taipei is willing to have constructive dialogue under the principles of equality and mutual respect, he added.
“China must face the reality of the existence of the Republic of China in Taiwan and must respect the choice of leaders through election by popular vote,” Wu said. “Both sides should engage in dialogue instead of confrontation.”
Separately, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) called on China to avoid escalating tensions.
“We strongly urge the mainland Chinese government to exercise restraint, avoid escalating tensions and cherish the achievements of peaceful development [across the Taiwan Strait],” Chu wrote on Facebook. “It is imperative to jointly maintain regional stability.”
“We must remind the mainland that the mainstream public opinion in Taiwan opposes any attempts to change the status quo by force,” he wrote. “The erroneous signals sent by the drills have already harmed the prospects for a peaceful cross-strait development.”
Chu also called on President William Lai (賴清德) and his national security team to present pragmatic and effective methods to deal with such a contingency.
He reiterated the KMT’s “2D” national security strategy to enhance national defense and engage in cross-strait dialogue.
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in a news release said that China was interfering in Taiwan’s democracy and infringing against its sovereignty, and called for an end to the intimidation tactics.
“In facing its hostile military actions and propaganda campaign, Taiwanese society must become more mature, in using the ‘resilient society’ to face these challenges,” the party said. “The TPP is insistent on basing interactions on principles of mutual awareness, mutual understanding, mutual respect and mutual cooperation in dealing with these challenges.”
“We shall engage in interaction to reduce hostilities, misjudgement and the chance of erroneous shots fired, thereby creating an environment for peace,” it said.
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