TAIPEI, Taiwan, July 30, (AP): Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te welcomed what he called the "largest-ever” delegation of foreign lawmakers to Taiwan and said Tuesday it showed the importance of democracies uniting, even as Beijing pressured members of the delegation not to visit.
"This demonstrates the support and the value various other countries place on Taiwan,” Lai said. "It also sends an important message to democratic countries around the world. Maintaining democracy requires unity, and we must protect democracy together."
Lai made his remarks at a conference in Taipei held by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of hundreds of lawmakers from 35 countries concerned about how democracies approach Beijing.
Beijing views the self-governed island democracy as part of its territory and has been upping its threats to annex it by force if necessary. Lai’s party, the Democratic Progressive Party, doesn’t seek independence from China because he believes that Taiwan is already a sovereign nation.
Beijing sees Lai as a separatist and refuses to speak with him. China has ramped up pressure against the island since Lai took office in May, sending ships and planes on a large military drill to show displeasure at his inauguration. That comes after years of Beijing's pressure on Taiwan - which has been ruled by the DPP for three terms now - on diplomatic, military and economic fronts.
Lai said at the conference that Taiwan would work with other democracies to protect democracy from "the threat of authoritarian expansionism.”
"China’s threat to any country is a threat to the whole world,” Lai told conference participants. China "uses diplomatic kidnapping, economic coercion, internet attacks, and spreading false and fake things to continuously muddle matters and seek to undermine regional peace and stability.”
Lai’s comments come as IPAC is under renewed scrutiny from Beijing. Lawmakers from at least six countries told The AP earlier this week that Chinese diplomats were pressuring them not to attend the conference, in what they described as efforts to isolate the self-governed island.