Taiwan Vice President William Lai on Sunday hit out at China as it carried out military drills around the island nation in anger at his visit to the United States. The front-runner in presidential polls to be held in January, Lai made brief stopovers in the US this month on his way to and from Paraguay, prompting fury in Beijing, as per Reuters report. “"It's not who China likes today, and then they can assume the post. This goes against the spirit of Taiwan's democracy, and represents huge damage to Taiwan's democratic system," he said.
Speaking of China reacting to foreign trips by Taiwanese leaders, Lai said Beijing should not “make a fuss over nothing.”
"My position is that Taiwan is not a part of the People's Republic of China. We are willing to link up with the international community and talk to China under the guarantee of security,” said Lai in an interview broadcast late Saturday.
"This election is not a choice between peace and war. We can't order off a menu, choosing peace and then there's peace, choosing war and then there's war. That's not the case. What it is is that we have the right to choose whether we want democracy or autocracy. This is the real choice we have to make in this election," added the Taiwanese VP.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s defence ministry said that 25 Chinese air force planes had crossed the Taiwan Strait's median line in the past 24 hours. The Taiwan Strait serves as an unofficial barrier between China and Taiwan as Beijing considers Taipei its own territory.
That included Su-30 and J-11 fighter jets, according to a map the ministry published, though there was no immediate sign China was continuing its exercises on Sunday, the report added.