China wants to annex Taiwan for regional 'hegemony': President Lai

Taipei, Sept. 2 (CNA) President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said on Sunday that Beijing wishes to annex Taiwan because it wants to "transform the rules-based global order" and "achieve hegemony" and not because of concerns over "territorial integrity."

"China's intent to attack Taiwan and annex Taiwan isn't because any particular person or political party says something or does something," Lai said during a television interview broadcast Sunday evening.

"And a political party not saying something or not doing something won't be able to prevent China's aggression."

Speaking on cable TV network ERATV's "The View with Catherine Chang," Lai said China's aim of annexing Taiwan was not driven by concerns for "territorial integrity."

"If it is really about territorial integrity, why don't they take back the land that was signed away and occupied by Russia in the Treaty of Aigun?" asked Lai, referring to the 1858 treaty signed by the Qing dynasty that ceded around 600,000 square kilometers of land in Manchuria to the Russian Empire.

According to Lai, China actually wants to annex Taiwan as part of its goal to "transform the rules-based global order" and "achieve hegemony in the western Pacific region and internationally."

During his hour-and-a-half interview with host Catherine Chang (張雅琴), Taiwan's president spoke on a wide range of topics, including his family background and upbringing, his interest in sports, high property prices, energy issues and the microchip industry.

The interview focused mostly, however, on issues related to Taiwan's sovereignty and Taiwan's position vis-a-vis growing Chinese assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region.

When asked by Chang what his attitude would be toward meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平), Lai responded by saying "I'm not thinking about that."

"As president and commander of the armed forces, my first mission is to ensure the nation's survival and development," he said.

Lai reiterated his government's opposition to the so-called "1992 consensus," which the opposition Kuomintang, in power at the time, has described as a tacit agreement with the Chinese Communist Party that there is only one China, with each side free to interpret what that means.

The consensus was used as a formula to facilitate talks and closer ties between Taiwan and China when the KMT was in power from 2008 to 2016, but Lai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has never accepted it because it implies that Taiwan is a part of China.

According to Lai, Taiwan "absolutely cannot accept the 'One China' principle of the '1992 consensus'" because that would "be equivalent to transferring Taiwan's sovereignty" to China.

"The future of the Republic of China, Taiwan, should be decided by the 23 million [Taiwanese people]," Lai told Chang, adding that this was the "consensus in Taiwanese society."

On national defense spending, Lai said it would be "difficult" to reach the target of 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from the current "more than 2.5 percent" level.

Strengthening Taiwan's national defensive capabilities is based on "developing asymmetric warfare capabilities" and doing R&D at home while purchasing arms from abroad, the president emphasized.

Lai also said he would continue his presidential predecessor Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) policy of modernizing training and making the armed forces "more confident" while continuing Taiwan's submarine-building program.

The first domestically built submarine was unveiled in September 2023, though it has yet to undergo its final harbor acceptance tests, and the next is scheduled for 2027.

In terms of resiliency against economic coercion from China, Lai noted that the proportion of Taiwan's overseas investment directed at China had fallen from 83.8 percent in 2010 to 11.4 percent in 2023.

This investment has instead been redirected to Japan, the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia, Lai said.

Lai also noted Taiwan's cooperation with various "democratic camp" alliances, such as the Quadrilateral Security Alliance (QUAD), AUKUS, and the Five Eyes Alliance that he said are "increasingly standing together."