Lai Ching-te, vice president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and presidential candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party, amid the Chinese communist regime’s increasing war threat, said, “If I become president, the probability of a war between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will be the lowest.”
The Republic of China was established in 1911 after the fall of China’s last imperial dynasty—the Qing Dynasty. After being defeated by the communists in China’s civil war, the nationalist government retreated to the island of Taiwan, the last territory of the Republic of China, while the communists established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Today, Taiwan’s official name is still the Republic of China.
Earlier this week, Mr. Lai said in an exclusive interview with Huang Weihan, the host of a popular online talk show in Taiwan, that today’s democracy and freedom in Taiwan are hard-won, and political party leaders should further deepen Taiwan’s democracy through every election.
“The Kuomintang (KMT) has been discussing that cross-strait war will occur if Lai Ching-te is president,” Mr. Lai emphasized. ”If I become president, the probability of cross-strait war will be the lowest because I am the most capable of protecting the country’s security.”
Mr. Lai pointed out that the KMT and other political parties are not in line with the spirit of democracy as they use the threat of invasion from the Chinese communist regime to accuse him of bringing danger to Taiwan, echoing the mainland ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) united front slogans against Taiwan. “The CCP hopes to support a pro-communist regime [in Taiwan] and uses force to intimidate Taiwanese people to affect their vote, and these are all predictable. But as an opposition party, you cannot cooperate with [communist] China,” he said.
He stressed that national security or peaceful cross-Strait development does not depend on the goodwill of the CCP or submitting a declaration of surrender to the CCP, nor does it depend on accepting the “1992 Consensus” with the CCP, giving up sovereignty, or accepting the CCP’s ”One-China Principle“ as the premise to sign a service trade agreement or peace agreement. “Taiwan must rely on its own strength to stand together with the world democracies and jointly exert the power of deterrence [against the CCP].”
Mr. Lai said that judging from the current situation, if the KMT presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih, the People’s Party presidential candidate Ko Wen-je or the independent candidate Foxconn founder Terry Gou were elected next year, they would directly or indirectly accept the “one-China principle, ” which is a very different choice from his vision of future national development.
“I know that peace is priceless and there are no winners in wars. I can also promise the people of the country here that peace is my most important mission. In the future, as president, I will definitely be committed to Taiwan’s security, stability across the Taiwan Strait, and peace in the Indo-Pacific. This is my most important mission,” Mr. Lai promised. As the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, he will go all out to win the presidential election and a majority in Congress.
As for the KMT’s persistent accusation of him for seeking Taiwan independence, Mr. Lai stated: “We will not amend the constitution or change the country’s name. We are the Republic of China.”
Against CCP’s Live Organ Harvesting
Mr. Lai was a medical doctor. When he was a legislator, he was among the first in Taiwan to expose the CCP’s atrocity of systemic forced live organ harvesting against Falun Gong adherents, a faith group based on the principles of Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance, that has been persecuted by the CCP since 1999. Countless Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally detained, tortured, killed, and missing.As early as Oct. 14, 2006, Mr. Lai urged Taiwan’s legislature to take actions to address the atrocity at the Legislative Yuan.
In addition to exposing the CCP’s live harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners to relevant government agencies and the public at the public hearing, he called on the government to actively stop the CCP’s evil deeds, and to formulate policies and laws to regulate overseas organ transplants and to inform the public that it may violate the law.
