China had branded Lai Ching-te a ‘”destroyer of peace,” but he called for dialogue and peace in his first message after winning the election.
Taiwan’s president-elect Lai Ching-te, once dubbed a “destroyer of peace” by China, used his first post-election speech to call for dialogue with Beijing.
China regards the island across the 100-mile Taiwan Strait as a renegade province even though the Communist Party has never ruled it since taking power on the mainland in 1949. It has vowed to use force, if need be, to unite with democratic Taiwan, which receives moral support and arms sales from the United States.
Lai, currently vice-president, said he would continue President Tsai Ing-wen’s policy of openness toward China.
“I will conduct cross-strait affairs according to that system so that cross-strait relations can return to a healthy and sustainable way of exchanges,” he said.
