Lai Qing's Delegation Day speech "Don't let authoritarianism erode democracy", the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council jumped on the bandwagon

President Lai Ching-te delivered a National Day speech today (10th). Spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China, Zhang Han, said that Lai Ching-te's speech exaggerated the China threat, advocated the false narrative of democracy versus authoritarianism, attempted to seek independence through force and relied on external forces, incited cross-strait confrontation and undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The Mainland Affairs Council refuted this, emphasizing that President Lai's National Day speech clearly stated that Taiwan will demonstrate its determination not to let authoritarianism erode democracy, not to let fear replace freedom, and to take firm and responsible actions to safeguard the status quo of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific.

Zhang Han said that Lai Qingde's speech ignored the facts, confounded right and wrong, misled the people, and had ulterior motives. This was his true performance as a pragmatic Taiwan independence worker. In his speech, Lai Qingde stubbornly held the separatist thinking of Taiwan independence, exaggerated the China threat, advocated the false narrative of democracy versus authoritarianism, attempted to use force to seek independence, relied on foreign countries to seek independence, provoked cross-strait confrontation, and undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

Zhang Han declared that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China. This is the true status quo across the Taiwan Strait. The one-China principle is the basic norm of international relations and the general consensus of the international community. It is also an important part of the post-World War II international order. Taiwan's future can only and must be decided jointly by all Chinese people, including Taiwan compatriots.

The Mainland Affairs Council pointed out that Taiwan’s future can only be decided jointly by the 23 million people in Taiwan, and the CCP has no right to comment. In the face of the increasing threat from the Chinese Communist Party to Taiwan, the government's determination to strengthen national defense independence and the defense resilience of the whole society will not change. It will continue to collaborate with international democratic partners to safeguard national sovereignty and Taiwan's sustainable prosperity, and ensure that force cannot override rules and that power cannot deprive the Taiwanese people of their right to determine the future.

The Mainland Affairs Council once again called on the Beijing authorities to abandon the ostrich mentality, face the objective facts of the institutional differences and non-subordination between democracy and authoritarianism across the Taiwan Strait pragmatically, stop coercion and pressure on Taiwan and undermine our democratic governance, and put the well-being of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait in mind, and under the principles of reciprocity and dignity, communicate and dialogue with our democratically elected legitimate government without any preconditions, assume the common responsibility of maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait and in the region, and respond to the expectations of the international community.