Only way out for Tsai is to improve cross-Straits ties
In an interview with CNN, Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen said that the Chinese mainland poses a “military threat” to Taiwan and asked Asia, even the whole world, to “unite” against it. Xiakedao, the official WeChat account of People’s Daily overseas edition, comments:
Tsai has never concealed her antagonism to the Chinese mainland, and this time she made clear how extreme her antipathy is.
Interestingly, she made it days after she announced the decision to compete in the 2020 election for the Taiwan leadership so as to stay in office for another four years. More interestingly, she chose to utter the words to a US media outlet, not a local one.
The reason is obvious: As Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party suffered a heavy defeat in the local elections last November, following which she had to resign as leader of the party, Tsai is now feeling pressure from both within and outside her party. So she has resorted to the old trick of exaggerating the “threat” from the Chinese mainland so as to frighten her comrades and the local people of Taiwan.
By releasing the information to a US media outlet, she also tried to hype up the “threat” to the US public.
However, her efforts, however smart she might think them to be, are doomed to fail. As early as 2016, the DPP realized that the local residents of Taiwan were not interested in their political ambition at all so they concealed that purpose in order to win the election. Tsai’s remarks show how desperate she is.
It should be noted that the Chinese mainland will never give up the choice to unify the country via military means, but it will make every effort to realize peaceful reunification. The only possibility of a war is if the Taiwan leadership violates the bottom line, forcing the Chinese mainland to resort to non-peaceful means.
It would be better for Tsai and the DPP to give up their political extremeness and improve cross-Straits ties, instead of exaggerating a “threat” from the mainland, since the only threat is of their making.