“Disgraceful,” according to China’s foreign ministry, is Taiwan’s new president

A day after taking office, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi escalated Beijing’s rhetoric by labeling Taiwan’s recently-installed President Lai Ching-te as “disgraceful” on Tuesday.

China considers Lai to be a “separatist” and has rejected his requests for negotiations since it regards Taiwan as its own territory.

Since Lai won the January election, China’s government has mostly refrained from calling him out by name, in contrast to the months leading up to the poll when they consistently attacked him by name and said that voters were choosing between war and peace.

At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s foreign ministers meeting in Kazakhstan, Wang stated that Taiwan was China’s “core of core issues” and that independence movements were the biggest threat to Taiwan Strait peace.

Wang was quoted by China’s foreign ministry as saying, “The ugly acts of Lai Ching-te and others who betray the nation and their ancestors is disgraceful.”
He continued, saying that nothing can stop China from taking Taiwan “back to the motherland” and achieving “reunification”.

“All Taiwan independence separatists will be nailed to the pillar of shame in history.”

Similar to his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen, Lai rejects Beijing’s claims to sovereignty and asserts that only the people of Taiwan can determine their own destiny.

On Tuesday, China also chastised the US for congratulating Lai after chastising MPs from Japan and South Korea for traveling to Taiwan in spite of China’s vehement opposition.

Lai demanded of China in his inauguration speech on Monday that it cease its political and military threats, stating that peace was the only option and that Beijing had to honor the decision made by the people of Taiwan.

After restating that the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China, which is Taiwan’s official name, are “not subordinate to each other,” Lai was met with thunderous acclaim. Tsai had adopted the same stance.

Such language is seen by China as essentially stating that China and Taiwan are two distinct nations, which is unacceptable to Beijing.

China claims that Taiwan would be attacked if it attempted to formally declare its independence.

Taiwan is already an independent nation, the Republic of China, according to the Taipei authorities. In 1949, having lost a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists who established the People’s Republic of China, the Republican government withdrew to Taiwan.