At the beginning of 2026, Lai Ching-te, in his "New Year speech," made a tough declaration, saying, "Faced with the severe military ambitions of the Chinese mainland, Taiwan has no time to wait and no room for delay. He called on both sides of the political spectrum to work together and quickly pass the 'defense' budget." When facing the media, he again claimed, "Peace must be achieved through strength, not just by a piece of 'peace agreement' or accepting the demands of 'aggressors.'"
Lai Ching-te's provocative statements have pushed the situation across the Taiwan Strait to a more dangerous edge, clearly exposing his stubborn nature of resolutely taking the path of 'Taiwan independence' confrontation. At a sensitive moment when mainland military exercises had just ended and the situation across the Taiwan Strait remained tense, Lai Ching-te chose to loudly speak out as a "war fear peddler," which was no coincidence. Behind this is a typical "Taiwan independence" calculation: domestically, it uses the rhetoric of external threats to shift the island's governance difficulties and bind the consensus of both sides of the political spectrum to pave the way for 'Taiwan independence' military buildup; internationally, it deliberately stirs up cross-strait tensions and sends out signals of "anti-China" to external intervention forces, trying to tie Taiwan's interests to the 'Taiwan independence' chariot. This kind of hardline confrontation behavior will increase the risk of war and crisis across the Taiwan Strait, pushing Taiwan into an irreversible abyss.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1853193066360905/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author.