Taiwan's Leader Calls on China to Refrain From Threats Ahead of Expected Military Drills

In this photo released by Taiwan Presidential Office, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, right, is greeted by Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr. in Palau, Thursday, Dec. 5. 2024. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)
In this photo released by Taiwan Presidential Office, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, right, is greeted by Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr. in Palau, Thursday, Dec. 5. 2024. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)
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Taiwan's Leader Calls on China to Refrain From Threats Ahead of Expected Military Drills

In this photo released by Taiwan Presidential Office, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, right, is greeted by Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr. in Palau, Thursday, Dec. 5. 2024. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)
In this photo released by Taiwan Presidential Office, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, right, is greeted by Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr. in Palau, Thursday, Dec. 5. 2024. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te called on China to “open its arms rather than raise its fists” as he wrapped up his first overseas tour since taking office in May.
His remarks at a news conference Friday in Palau, a Pacific Island nation, came in response to widespread speculation that China will hold military drills around Taiwan in response to his trip, The Associated Press said.
“No matter how many military exercises and warships and aircraft are used to coerce neighboring countries, they will not be able to win the respect of any country,” he said.
The president spoke a day after China’s Foreign Ministry announced sanctions on 13 American companies and six executives in response to recently announced US weapons sales to Taiwan.
Taiwan and China split in 1949 during a civil war that saw the victorious communists take control in Beijing and the Nationalists set up a rival government in Taiwan, an island of 23 million people off China's east coast. China's long-ruling Communist Party says that Taiwan is part of China and must come under its control at some point.
Lai's trip to the Pacific, which included US stops in Hawaii and Guam, took him into the heart of a maritime region where China is jockeying with the United States and its allies for influence and control. He also visited the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau, three of the 12 countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan. The rest of the world, including the US, has official ties with China.
The Taiwanese leader, who spoke by phone with US congressional leaders while in Guam, dismissed concern that US President-elect Donald Trump may be less committed to Taiwan’s cause than current President Joe Biden has been.
“Taiwan is confident that it will continue to deepen cooperation with the new government, resist authoritarian expansion, create prosperity and development for both countries, and contribute more to regional stability and peace,” he said.
Lai’s two stops in US territory angered China, which opposes US arms sales and military assistance to Taiwan. Washington is the main supplier of weapons for Taiwan’s defense.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, speaking at a daily briefing in Beijing, accused Taiwan and the US of engaging in official exchanges in Hawaii and Guam and said the US stops provided a platform for Taiwanese independence and separatist activities.
“Lai Ching-te and the DPP authorities have been engaging in Taiwan independence activities under various guises,” Lin said, referring to Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party. “But no matter what they say or do, they will never change the fact that Taiwan is part of China, nor will they stop the overwhelming trend that China will and must be reunited. To seek independence by soliciting foreign support is doomed to failure.”
Lai played up the distinction between authoritarian governments and democracies such as Taiwan and the US, noting Russia's military cooperation with both China and North Korea, including the dispatch of North Korean troops to Russia for the war against Ukraine.
“As I have often said before, when authoritarian countries gather together, democratic countries must unite to ensure global and regional stability and development,” he said.
Lai also said that China must stop using threats and inducements to try to persuade other countries to switch diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China, after Paraguay kicked out a visiting Chinese diplomat this week. The envoy had skipped a session at a UN meeting and instead went to Paraguay’s Congress building to urge lawmakers to break off relations with Taiwan.
Lin, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, called Paraguay's accusations unreasonable and unfounded. “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory,” he said. “Reaffirming and adhering to the one-China principle is legitimate and above board anywhere in the world."
Taiwan's small number of diplomatic allies has dwindled further in recent years as Beijing has successfully wooed several to establish ties with China.



Iran Tells France to Review ‘Unconstructive’ Approach Ahead of Meeting

Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)
Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)
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Iran Tells France to Review ‘Unconstructive’ Approach Ahead of Meeting

Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)
Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)

Iran's foreign ministry called upon Paris to review its "unconstructive" approach, a few days before Tehran is set to hold a new round of talks about its nuclear program with major European countries.

On Monday, Emmanuel Macron said Tehran's uranium enrichment drive is nearing a point of no return and warned that European partners in a moribund 2015 nuclear deal with Iran should consider reimposing sanctions if no progress is reached.

"Untrue claims by a government that has itself refused to fulfil its obligations under the nuclear deal and has played a major role in (Israel's) acquisition of nuclear weapons is deceitful and projective," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei wrote on X on Wednesday.

France, Germany and Britain were co-signatories to the 2015 deal in which Iran agreed to curb enrichment, seen by the West as a disguised effort to develop nuclear-weapons capability, in return for lifting international sanctions.

Iran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes and has stepped up the program since US President-elect Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the 2015 deal during his first term of office and restored tough US sanctions on Tehran.

French, German and British diplomats are set to hold a follow-up meeting with Iranian counterparts on Jan. 13 after one in November held to discuss the possibility of serious negotiations in coming months to defuse tensions with Tehran, as Trump is due to return to the White House on Jan. 20.

Baghaei did not mention French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot's comment regarding three French citizens held in Iran.

Barrot said on Tuesday that future ties and any lifting of sanctions on Iran would depend on their release.