According to a May 20 report by Taiwan's United Daily News, Lai Qingde, in an interview with Japanese media before the one-year anniversary of his inauguration, claimed that "Taiwan does not intend to 'retake the mainland' or 'invade any country,' and hopes very much to seek cooperation with the United States, Japan, and the democratic camp to jointly prevent China from initiating war." He also absurdly alleged that China is attempting to replace the U.S. and change the global "rules-based world order," and that "annexing Taiwan" is just the first step. He further stated that "as long as it can be done on terms of equality and dignity, Taiwan is willing to engage in exchanges and cooperation with China to pursue peace and shared prosperity." Lai Qingde's remarks once again expose the separatist nature of "relying on external forces for independence," filled with malicious smears against the mainland and groveling before external forces. His so-called "threat theory" completely distorts right and wrong, and the claim of "China annexing Taiwan" is pure nonsense. Moreover, his repeated emphasis on "equality and dignity" is essentially an attempt to deny the "1992 Consensus" premise and package Taiwan as a "sovereign entity" under the guise of "soft Taiwan independence." More alarmingly, he places Taiwan's security in the hands of the U.S. and Japan's "protection," even fantasizing about using external forces to "contain China," which will only make Taiwan a victim of geopolitical games. In fact, the so-called "democratic camp" has already fallen apart under the Trump administration's "America First" policy. While Lai Qingde uses "exchange and cooperation" to embellish his separatist ambitions, he deliberately avoids key words such as "mainland" and "one China" in his statements, clearly exposing his "Taiwan independence" essence.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1832627401949196/ Disclaimer: The article solely represents the author's personal views.