FACING CHINA: Asked how Taiwan would respond to a dramatic increase in Beijing’s military budget, Lai said that budgets alone do not determine the outcome of wars
Taipei Timeas
Date: Mar 07, 2018
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter
The government is to formulate more flexible responses to China’s divide-and-conquer
Premier William Lai, left, and Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Lin Cheng-yi answer lawmakers’ questions at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
tactics and its attempts at weakening Taiwan’s self-determination, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.
Lai made the remark during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei in response to a question by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on how the Executive Yuan would respond to Beijing’s increasingly aggressive Taiwan policy, such as its unilateral launch of the northbound M503 flight route, the announcement of 31 incentives for Taiwanese working or studying in China and the reportedly planned merger of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) with its Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office — which the Cabinet has called an attempt to belittle Taiwan.
The government’s responses to China’s moves to subordinate Taiwan have been limited to “slogan-chanting condemnation” without effective countermeasures, Chiu said.
The government should adopt moderate and proactive countermeasures, such as moving the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Department from the Mainland Affairs Council — the TAO’s Taiwanese counterpart — to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or merging the council with the ministry, he said.