Lai Ching-te: If I become president, the probability of cross-strait war is the lowest | Presidential election | Taiwan election | Republic of China

[The Epoch Times, November 06, 2023](Epoch Times reporter Zhong Yuan reported in Taiwan) Lai Qingde, Vice President of the Republic of China and presidential candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party, said, “If I become president, the probability of a war between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will be the lowest. Because I am the most capable of protecting the country’s security.”

Lai Ching-te accepted an exclusive interview with Huang Weihan, the host of the online program “After Work Han Ni Chat”. He said that today’s achievements in democracy and freedom in Taiwan are hard-won. Political party leaders should use every election to further deepen Taiwan’s democracy and treat elections as a matter of course. It is a carnival of democracy, and then it must nominate outstanding talents, introduce good candidates, propose a national policy blueprint, and have the courage to win the support of the people so that his party can shoulder national responsibilities and realize its ideals.

The CCP wants to use force and intimidation to influence Taiwanese people to vote

As for the outside world’s concern that Xiao Meiqin may be the deputy, he said that the Democratic Progressive Party has started discussing non-district legislators since last week and hopes to announce the list in mid-November, and then further announce the candidate for vice president. He has several ideal candidates in his mind, but he still needs further discussions with the party to make a final decision. Representative Xiao Meiqin is indeed one of them, but he has not really talked with her yet.

The host asked, “The Kuomintang has been discussing that there will be war between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait when Lai Qingde is president.” Lai Qingde emphasized, “If I become president, the probability of a war between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will be the lowest, because I am the most capable of protecting the security of the country.”

Lai Ching-de pointed out that the Blue and White party is not in line with the spirit of democracy and has no ambition. It uses the CCP’s threat of force to accuse it of bringing danger to Taiwan and echoes the CCP’s slogan of united front against Taiwan. The CCP hopes to support a pro-communist regime and wants to use force to intimidate. These can be expected to affect the votes of Taiwanese people, “but as an opposition party, you cannot cooperate with China.”

He emphasized that national security or peaceful cross-Strait development does not depend on the goodwill of the CCP or submitting a declaration of surrender to the CCP, nor does it depend on accepting the “1992 Consensus”, giving up sovereignty, or accepting the “One-China Principle” as the premise to sign a service trade agreement or peace Agreement, Taiwan must rely on strength to stand together with the democratic camp and jointly exert the power of deterrence.

The host asked, “Why are you so angry when former President Chen Shui-bian blocked the submarine budget 69 times during his administration?” Lai Qingde said that after the 2004 presidential election, although Chen Shui-bian only won by a small number of votes, Taiwan is a democratic country. , whoever wins will lead the country. It is a pity that after the election, the blue camp launched a series of protests, including asking for a re-verification of votes. President Chen Shui-bian agreed. Originally, the disputes had been resolved, but unexpectedly, Lien Chan went to China in 2005. ” On the one hand, the blue camp is blocking arms purchases in Taiwan, and then on the other hand, it is going to China to “connect with China (the Communist Party) to control Taiwan.” This is wrong.”

He emphasized that after Chen Shui-bian took office, US President George W. Bush finally agreed to arms sales. At that time, there was an arms purchase list, which included four Jide-class destroyers, eight diesel-electric submarines, and 12 P3C anti-submarine helicopters. If the Taiwan arms purchase bill had been passed 18 years ago, eight submarines would already have been protecting Taiwan’s security in the Taiwan Strait. Wouldn’t that be great? Because it was blocked by Blue Camp at that time, Taiwan now wants to build its own submarines.

Lai Ching-te: The Blue and White camp’s acceptance of the “one-China principle” is not mainstream public opinion in Taiwan

Lai Qingde said that if the Blue and White camp is elected to power next year, judging from the current situation, whether the KMT presidential candidate Hou Youyi, the People’s Party presidential candidate Ko Wenzhe or Hon Hai Group founder Terry Gou will directly or indirectly accept the “one-China principle” , which is a very different choice from his future national development.

Regarding the issue of blue-white cooperation, he believes that the reason why blue-white talks about cooperation is to unite secondary enemies and attack the main enemy. “Blue and White” cannot produce the effect of one plus one greater than two. Recent polls show that only 20% of people are in favor of the Kuomintang being in power, and only 10% are in favor of the People’s Party being in power. This means that 70 to 80% are against Blue’s rule. Eighty to ninety percent are against the White administration, which shows that neither Blue nor White is the mainstream public opinion in Taiwan.

Lai Ching-te said, “I know that peace is priceless and there are no winners in wars. I can also promise the people of the country here that peace is my most important mission. In the future, as president, I will definitely be committed to Taiwan’s security, stability across the Taiwan Strait, and peace in the Indo-Pacific. This is my most important mission!” When he is the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, he will definitely go all out to get the president elected and the Congress to have a majority.

Lai Qingde is confident that the support level will return to 40% and even higher in the future

As for the Kuomintang’s persistent claim that it is seeking Taiwan independence, if it is elected president in the future, will it push for constitutional amendments and change of the country’s title? Lai Qingde said, “We will not amend the constitution or change the country’s name. We will be the Republic of China.”

He was asked whether there would be any pressure on him, although his support remained at the leading level but showed a downward trend. Lai Ching-de analyzed that his support soared past 40% in March because the DPP won the Nantou Legislative by-election; his support hit a new high in August because he returned to Taiwan from a trip to Paraguay on behalf of President Tsai Ing-wen. As for March His support declined after August and August. The reasons include intra-party primary competition, gender equality incident, imported egg crisis, DPP legislator Zhao Tianlin incident, etc. Most of them are the DPP’s own problems. He is confident that he will support it in the future. The rate will return to 40% and higher.

The host asked about the incident when Lai Qingde was a legislator in 2004, when he tried to persuade a young man to drive in the opposite direction in an alleyway, but was beaten to the ground and fell into a coma. He said that when he pointed to the one-way street sign to the young people, it was actually a kind reminder and he did not speak loudly at all. As a result, three young men immediately got out of the car. One of them took a wooden stick, and the other two attacked him with their bare hands. One of them, a man over 180 centimeters tall, hit him directly on the back of the head, causing the other to fall into a coma.

Lai Qingde said that he was not admitted to the ICU at that time, but asked to be admitted to the general ward because he was worried that the media reports would worry his mother. He did not file a lawsuit against the young people, nor did he demand compensation from them. The young people did not come to him at first and did not apologize.

Lai Qingde said that because they kicked the head as it was considered a fatal organ, the prosecutor initiated a public prosecution and was sentenced to several years in prison after the first trial. Later, they came to him through a priest, hoping that he could forgive these young people. Lai Qingde told the pastor that they embarked on this road because they were lost. It is good if the pastor is willing to lead them. At that time, he also thought that he had ambitions to abandon medicine and join politics, so he agreed to reconcile without having time to deal with them, and gave them a chance to change for the better.

Lai Qingde said about his family that his youngest son is in Taiwan. The eldest son went to the United States to study, work, and receive training. The eldest son, daughter-in-law, and grandson’s family have returned to Taiwan from the United States. However, the eldest son has returned to the United States again due to work, but will still return to Taiwan in the future.

As for his family’s old house in Wanli, New Taipei City, Lai Qingde, who was born the son of a miner, said that his family’s old house used to be a miner’s workhouse, and it must be restored if he continues to live in it. The land of the old house originally belonged to the mine owner, so the land tax was of course the mine owner’s responsibility. As for the housing tax, as long as the New Taipei City Government billed it, his mother paid it. Family members do not live in the old house, and his brother occasionally returns to maintain the environment.

He was asked whether the Democratic Progressive Party president would continue to be in power if he was elected next year. Lai Ching-te said that under his rule, Taiwan will be safer in the face of the threat from the CCP, Taiwanese society will have deeper democracy, and the economy will develop more, because he will propose to expand investment in society and take care of the relatively disadvantaged people in society. Taiwan will Under his leadership, democracy continued to grow.

Editor in charge: Lin Yan#