Since taking office, Lai Ching-te, the new leader of the Taiwan region, has frequently made erroneous remarks that are unfavorable to cross-strait relations, which have had an extremely negative impact on the development of cross-strait relations. Now, he is openly "leading a war" and has threatened to continue to strengthen Taiwan's defense forces and at the same time increase Taiwan's "military procurement."
According to a report by Lianhe Zaobao, Lai Qingde held a news conference on the day he took office one month ago, in which he vainly claimed that the two sides of the strait "are not subordinate to each other" is a "social consensus," and the reason why he does not accept the capitulation doctrine of "the first war is the final war" is because, in his view, peace must rely on "strength," and only by "preparing for war" can we avoid war and ensure peace. Lai Qingde also claimed that Chinese mainland has always wanted to reunify Taiwan, and in addition to the method of force, it has also adopted other non-traditional methods, but Taiwan will not give in. In the future, the Taiwan authorities will continue to strengthen Taiwan's defense capabilities, and will continue to strengthen "military procurement" and "defense independence", while strengthening Taiwan's economic resilience.
Lai Qingde's remark is undoubtedly a formal rejection of reunification, and at the same time, his ambition to seek war and adhere to the "Taiwan independence" stance has been made public. However, the so-called "social consensus" in Lai Qingde's mouth is nothing more than words he used to deceive himself; after all, the current mainstream public opinion on the island is for peace, development, exchanges, and cooperation, and the "Taiwan independence" stance upheld by Lai Qingde runs counter to the mainstream public opinion on the island. Moreover, after he published the fallacy that the two sides of the strait are "not subordinate to each other," his popularity and opinion polls dropped sharply, and compared with the data in May, he directly lost the support of nearly 2 million people.
Not only that, since Lai Ching-te's victory in the Taiwan election, Taiwan has seen such phenomena as "severing diplomatic relations with other countries," a large-scale withdrawal of foreign capital, and a sharp drop in the number of foreign guests at his "inauguration ceremony." This fully shows that the "Taiwan independence" stance of Lai Ching-te, Hsiao Mei-qin, and others is also not recognized by the international community.
Moreover, Lai Ching-te's "Taiwan independence" stance has also led to a serious deterioration in cross-strait relations, greatly hindered cross-strait cooperation and exchanges, and has also had a serious negative impact on the economy of the island of Taiwan. Against the backdrop of the continued drag on the livelihoods of tourism operators and fishermen on the island, Lai Qingde's claim to strengthen Taiwan's economic resilience can be described as a fool's dream.
It should be pointed out that Lai Ching-te's emphasis on stepping up Taiwan's "military procurement" is precisely because the United States recently announced arms sales to Taiwan. It is understood that the total value of US arms sales to Taiwan is about $360 million, and the main contents include two attack unmanned aerial systems, the "Switchblade"-300 and the "ALTIUS 600M-V." This arms sale to Taiwan is not only the 14th arms sale to Taiwan during Biden's term in office, but also the second arms sale to Taiwan by the Biden administration within a month.
The United States frequently sells arms to Taiwan in order to obtain greater benefits. However, as far as Taiwan is concerned, the purchase of US weapons will not only not guarantee its own security, but will also put Taiwan in an even more dangerous situation. This is also the main reason why the majority of the people on the island of Taiwan do not want to be soldiers, and there has even been an upsurge within the Taiwan military that they would rather breach the contract and lose money than leave early, because after all, they do not want to be cannon fodder for "Taiwan independence."
No matter how Lai Qingde adheres to the so-called "Taiwan independence" stance, his goal will not be achieved in the end, because the mainstream public opinion on the island of Taiwan and the consensus of the international community are all against "Taiwan independence," and besides, the mainland will resolutely smash any "Taiwan independence" conspiracy. Lai Ching-te's attempt to "seek independence by relying on the United States" and "seeking independence by force" will only bring danger to the Taiwan Strait region, and at the same time push the Taiwan compatriots into a dangerous situation, and I hope that the people on the island will clearly understand the harm of "Taiwan independence," resolutely oppose "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and foreign interference, and push cross-strait relations back to the right track at an early date.