Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen on Saturday said China is becoming a growing threat to the self-ruled island and predicted a volatile but pivotal 2017.
“The Beijing leadership has, step by step, backed onto an old track to polarize, pressure and even threaten and intimidate Taiwan,” Tsai said. “We hope that this is not Beijing’s adoption of a policy and want to remind it that such moves have hurt Taiwanese people’s feelings and affected stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Tsai’s comments, at a year-end news conference, came after China sent its first aircraft carrier and five other warships through waters near Taiwan this week. The island has also suffered the loss of diplomatic alliances in Africa to China this year and, since April, a more than 30% drop in tourism from the Chinese mainland.
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the Chinese civil war in the 1940s and opposes any moves in Taiwan or abroad to legitimize its self-rule.
President-elect Donald Trump ‘s surprise phone call with Taiwan’s president left many in China reeling over a perceived assault on the country’s sovereignty and questioning their assumptions about America’s future leader.
Although Trump repeatedly denounced China’s trade policies as unfair during…
President-elect Donald Trump ‘s surprise phone call with Taiwan’s president left many in China reeling over a perceived assault on the country’s sovereignty and questioning their assumptions about America’s future leader.
Although Trump repeatedly denounced China’s trade policies as unfair during…
Tsai has irritated China since taking office May 20 by rejecting Beijing’s conditions for talks that the Communist Party leadership hopes could someday lead to unification of the two sides.
