Lai playing word games shows he’s blind to the fact he’s building a castle on sand: China Daily editorial

The inauguration speech Lai Ching-te delivered in Taipei on Monday on taking office as the new leader of Taiwan island has unequivocally shown him to be just as much of a diehard separatist as his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen.

The former deputy head of the Tsai authorities has not only adopted the Democratic Progressive Party's "democracy" narrative, portraying the DPP as a model in that regard despite having made it a proxy of Washington, but also gone to great lengths to explain how the island should be viewed as a "sovereign state".

That he intentionally avoided using such words as "independent state" or "two Chinas" is primarily to ensure his remarks do not belie the Joe Biden administration's stated commitment to uphold the one-China principle and to not support Taiwan's "independence".

But the one-China principle brooks no space for the ambiguous word games of Lai.

The two sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China, with the central government in Beijing as the sole legal representative of the country. That is not only stipulated by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758, but also a series of binding historical documents and a consensus of the majority of countries.

That Lai, in his address, expressed appreciation for the US passing the Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act last month, which provides $8.12 billion to continue efforts "to counter Beijing", and said Beijing poses "the largest strategic threat to global security", clearly shows that he feels no qualms about making the island a piece on the US' game board, no matter the cost to regional peace and stability.

That's fundamentally against the sentiment that prevails among the Taiwan public. Peace rather than war, development rather than recession, exchanges rather than separation, cooperation rather than confrontation are the mainstream public opinion on the island. It is clear that the root cause of the complicated and severe situation across the Taiwan Strait is that the DPP authorities stubbornly adhere to the separatist stance of "Taiwan independence", refuse to recognize the 1992 Consensus and are colluding with external forces to continuously engage in "independence" provocations.

As the spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office reiterated on Monday, Beijing's will to resolve the Taiwan question and achieve national reunification is "rock-solid", its ability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity is "indestructible", and it will resolutely counter any separatist move and external interference in China's internal affairs.

Beijing will fully implement its overall strategy for resolving the Taiwan question, unite Taiwan compatriots, strive to promote the peaceful and integrated development of cross-Strait relations, and unswervingly advance the great cause of the reunification of the island with the motherland.

No matter how the situation on the island changes, no matter who is in power, China will inevitably be reunified.