Lin pointed to other things China has been doing, like unilaterally opening new air routes close to Taiwan-controlled islands next to the Chinese coast, and sending coast guard ships to Taiwan’s east coast during the exercises last week.
“The Chinese communists are continuing to change the status quo,” he said. “They are creating a new normal, pressing on at every stage, trying to nibble away and annex (us).”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, at its routine news conference on Wednesday, reiterated its list of complaints about Lai being a dangerous supporter of Taiwan’s formal independence, and threatened continued Chinese military activity.
Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but been rebuffed, and says that Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
China says Taiwan is a purely internal matter.
Lin said stability was a matter for everyone.
“The cross-strait issue is not only about the strait; it’s a regional, or even global matter,” he added.
The government in Taipei says Taiwan is already an independent country, the Republic of China. The Republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s Communists who set up the People’s Republic of China.
