Taiwan’s newly inaugurated president William Lai has called on China to stop threatening the island and accept the existence of its democracy.

He urged Beijing to replace confrontation with dialogue, shortly after being sworn in on Monday.

He also said Taiwan would never back down in the face of intimidation from China, which has long claimed the island as its own.

China responded by saying, “Taiwan independence is a dead end”.

“Regardless of the pretext or the banner under which it is pursued, the push for Taiwan independence is destined to fail,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at the daily press briefing on Monday afternoon.

  • tortillaPeanuts@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I don’t understand how that article relates to Taiwan at all. It seems like a dispute between China and Australia.

    • zephyreks@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      He’s deflecting on a fucking non-issue because he doesn’t want to admit that his policy of antagonizing China isn’t working and the opposition (KMT+TPP) have increasing power.