William Lai, Taiwan's current vice president and a presidential front-runner for the polls in January, on Sunday said that the self-governed island will "never back down in the face of growing threats from China" during a transit through the United States, despite condemnation of his trip by Beijing.
Lai made a stop at New York while on his way to Paraguay to attend the inauguration of its new President on Tuesday. Paraguay is one of the 13 countries who maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, CNN reported.
At a lunch banquet, Lai said that the international community should be interested in Taiwan's long-term survival. "When Taiwan is safe, the world is safe, and when there is peace on the Taiwan Strait, there will be world peace," he further mentioned.
He also said that we "should not be scared nor cower' in face of threats of authoritarianism to Taiwan and "uphold the values of democracy and freedom".
This comes after China's foreign minister condemned his stopover in New York and called him "a troublemaker through and through". China also opposed any official interaction between the US and Taiwan and any "Taiwan independence separatists to the US."
However, officials from Taiwan and the US have said that Lai's transits are routine, including a stopover in San Francisco on Wednesday during his way back to Taipei. "These transits of senior officials are unofficial, in keeping with our US One China policy," a senior administration official told CNN.
Lai last travelled to the US in January 2022. His self-proclaimation as a "pragmatic worker for Taiwanese independence" has attracted loathing from Beijing. He is a frontrunner for the presidential elections in January 2024, as incumbent President Tsai Ing-Wen cannot stand for a third term.
This comes as tensions between China and Taiwan continue to increase. China has insisted that Taiwan is a separatist province that must be reunited with the mainland—even if it means using force—to do so. China has been stationing warships close to Taiwan and regularly sending fighter jets into the air defense zone.
Notably, Taipei split from Beijing during the civil war that brought Mao Zedong's Communist Party to power and established the People's Republic of China in 1949. While the Communist Party gained control of the Chinese mainland in 1949, the Kuomintang-ruled government of the erstwhile Republic of China set up its government in Taiwan (officially called the Republic of China).
Though both provinces have been controlled separately for more than 70 years, the CCP continues to claim sovereignty over the island nation. China has, on several occasions, stepped up military exercises around the self-ruled country, which it considers its territory under the 'One China policy'.
On the other hand, the US remains a strong ally of the self-governed island and has repeatedly send military aid, including high-profile weapons and ammunition, to Taipei in case of an attack from Beijing.
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