Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said Monday that China had “no right to punish” the Taiwanese, after Beijing included the death penalty in new criminal sanctions targeting suspected Taiwanese secessionists on Friday.
China considers that this island, governed autonomously, is part of its territory and says it is ready to reconquer it by force if necessary.
Beijing on Friday made public new judicial guidelines providing for the death penalty for “particularly serious” cases targeting “diehard” supporters of Taiwan independence, state media reported.
Asked about these new legal sanctions, President Lai replied on Monday: “I want to emphasize that democracy is not the origin of crime. “Autocracy is the root cause of crime.”
“China has no right to punish the people of Taiwan for what they stand for. China does not have the right to prosecute Taiwanese people outside its borders,” he insisted.
Ties between the two parties will deteriorate if China “does not accept the existence of the Republic of China and does not initiate exchanges (…) with the democratically elected and legitimate government of Taiwan”, added Mr. Lai, referring to Taiwan by its official name on the island.
“This is the right path to improve the well-being of people on both sides” of the Taiwan Strait, a 180 km wide sea lane that separates the autonomous island from mainland China, continued the Taiwanese president .
Last month, a few days after the inauguration of President Lai, China carried out military maneuvers around the island, in reaction to a speech by the new president, perceived by Beijing as an “admission of Taiwan’s independence “.
For 48 hours, China had mobilized warships, planes, soldiers and missile launchers to encircle the island.
After the military maneuvers at the end of May, Beijing promised that military pressure on the island would continue “as long as provocations linked to Taiwan’s independence continue.”
Taiwan’s military said Monday it had detected 23 Chinese military aircraft and seven ships around the island in the 24 hours before 6 a.m. (10 p.m. GMT).
Mr Lai, considered a “dangerous separatist” by China, said there was no need for Taiwan to officially declare independence because it was “already independent”.
