Taiwan urges calm in discourse with China

Beijing gradually returning to old tactics of intimidation, President Tsai maintains

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's leader Saturday urged China to engage in "calm and rational" dialogue to maintain peace, saying China had resorted to military and economic threats to intimidate the self-ruled island.

"As long as we can be calm, rational and maintain a flexible attitude, I believe we should be able to find a solution that allows both sides to maintain peaceful and stable relations," President Tsai Ing-wen said in a year-end news conference.

Relations have been strained since China suspended contacts with Tsai's administration in June over her refusal to endorse China's claim that Taiwan and the mainland are part of a single Chinese nation. The two have been rivals since the Communist Revolution of 1949.

Tensions were further amplified last month when President-elect Donald Trump broke protocol by speaking with Tsai on the phone and said later that he did not feel "bound by a one-China policy."

Last week, China's first aircraft carrier and five other warships held drills that passed by Taiwan and sailed through the contested South China Sea, prompting Taipei to deploy fighter jets to monitor the fleet. China maintains a standing threat to use force to achieve its goal of absorbing Taiwan.

Referring to such recent actions, Tsai said Beijing has been "gradually returning to the old ways of dividing, suppressing, and even threatening and intimidating Taiwan. We hope that this is not a policy decision of the Beijing authorities."

China has ratcheted up efforts to diplomatically isolate Taiwan, intervening to prevent the island's participation in international forums and establishing diplomatic relations with former Taiwan allies Gambia and Sao Tome and Principe. The moves have been seen as effectively abandoning the unspoken diplomatic truce that lasted eight years under Tsai's China-friendly predecessor. Meanwhile, the number of Chinese tourists visiting the island has drastically fallen.

Despite China's recent actions, which she said had "hurt the feelings" of the Taiwanese people and destabilized relations, Tsai vowed, "We will not yield to the pressure nor go back to the old ways of confrontation."

Tsai said her administration expected 2017 to bring uncertainties, particularly in the first half, noting that the incoming U.S. administration could produce "changes in international affairs."

Trump advisers have made conflicting statements about whether Trump's call with Tsai signaled a new policy toward China. Some analysts read it and other remarks critical of China as signals of a willingness to increase ties with Taiwan, which would further anger China.

But such a policy could provide economic advantages for Taiwan's export-dependent half-trillion-dollar economy, long-term access to senior U.S. officials and more sales of advanced U.S. weapons to defend against China.

Richard Bush, director of the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said Tsai understood the need to "maintain a balance among relations with China, relations with the United States and domestic politics."

Tsai's vision, however, "may not align well with the incoming Trump administration's apparent belief that it can pressure China on all fronts more than the Obama administration has," he said.

Tsai's office said Friday that she and a delegation of Taiwanese officials will make two stops in the U.S., in Houston and San Francisco, as part of a visit to diplomatic allies in Central America this month. China has repeatedly urged the U.S. to prevent Tsai from transiting, warning that such a visit would embolden independence activists in Taiwan.

Tsai described the visit as "unofficial," saying, "A transit stop is just a transit stop."

Information for this article was contributed by Javier C. Hernandez of The New York Times; and by staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 01/01/2017

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