Experts on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have criticized Lai Ching-te, Taiwan's regional leader, for intensifying confrontation and obstructing people-to-people exchanges since he took office nearly a year ago.
Widespread criticism over Lai Ching-te's governance has ratcheted up recently. In the first year in office, Lai fawned over the United States and sold Taiwan out, labeled the mainland as an "external hostile force," increased Taiwan's defense budget to more than 3 percent of its GDP, expanded military purchases from the U.S., and prompted moves to relocate chip giant TSMC's operations to the U.S., according to some commentators.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities' move to solicit U.S. support to seek separatism has brought huge security risks to Taiwan, and deepened suspicions of the U.S. in the Taiwan region, said Liu Xiangping, head of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Nanjing University.
"Any attempt made by Lai Ching-te and secessionist forces to rely on the U.S. and other external forces for separatism should be regarded as very naive," he said.
However, Lai's flattery has not won him favor as U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly refused to take a position on "whether or not to assist in the defense of Taiwan" in the early stages of his election campaign, and recently even mentioned "unification and peace" when talking about the results of the high-level talks on trade and economic cooperation between China and the U.S., which has made the DPP authorities very nervous, Liu said.
"Our motherland is growing from strength to strength at a faster pace. We now have firm confidence and will, and sufficient capacity to oppose and crush all Taiwan secessionist activities as well as sufficient capacity to respond to and counteract external interference," he said.
Since Lai took office, the DPP authorities have continued to manipulate "de-sinicization" and advocate the wrong view of history, attempting to cut the deep historical and cultural connection between both sides of the Taiwan Strait and weaken the Chinese national consciousness and Chinese cultural identity of Taiwan compatriots, experts warn.
At the same time, the DPP authorities have created a "chilling effect" and erected numerous obstacles to cross-Strait exchanges, said Hsiao Hsu-tsen, executive director of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation.
"Now there is a bleak atmosphere within Taiwan. Many groups are afraid to go to the mainland. As far as I know, about five or six groups of people originally planned to go. Some were academic, some were cultural, and of course, there were also groups of teenagers. But all of them canceled their trips for various reasons. Many groups on the island are worried that they will get into trouble or be pressured after returning from the mainland," he said.
Lai has stirred up cross-Strait confrontation and undermined peace and stability in the region, fully proving that he is a "saboteur of peace" and a "crisis maker" across the Taiwan Strait, experts say.
Experts criticize Lai Ching-te for intensifying cross-Strait confrontation, obstructing exchanges
