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Taiwan Nationalist Party presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih answers a question at a foreign press convention in New Taipei, Taiwan.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – One of Taiwan’s opposition party’s leading candidates in Saturday’s presidential election has promised to revive the island’s defense functions while renewing talks with Beijing, which claims the island as its own.
Hou Yu-ih, the presidential candidate of the opposition Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, said Thursday that it needs to “strengthen” Taiwan’s ability to protect itself and deter an imaginable Chinese attack.
“We want to let them know that they have to bear the burden of war,” Hou said at a press convention in New Taipei City, a municipality bordering the capital Taipei. Hou, 66, is the mayor of New Taipei, a position from which he took a leave of absence to run for president.
In addition to strengthening defense, Hou pledged to revive discussion with Beijing (first cultural and civil society exchanges) as a component of his “3D” strategy, which stands for deterrence, discussion and de-escalation.
Most pre-election polls put Hou in second place to ruling Democratic Progressive Party candidate William Lai, who most recently served as vice president to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Tsai is barred by law from running for a third term.
A third candidate, Ko Wen-je of Taiwan’s small People’s Party, is running in the election.
Beijing appears to favor Hou in the election, as an option against Lai, whom it has criticized as a “separatist” who is destined to galvanize a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
Taiwan seceded from China amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing still views the island of 23 million people and its high-tech economy as Chinese territory and has increased its threats to achieve this goal by military force if necessary.
China has also stepped up military pressure on the island by sending near-constant military planes and ships to the island’s vicinity. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry also reported this month that Chinese balloons, which could be used only for espionage, were flying nearby.
Differences over Taiwan are a major flashpoint in U. S. -China relations. Relations with the island are governed through the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, which makes it U. S. policy to give Taiwan the resources to protect itself and save it from any unilateral replacement of prestige through Beijing.
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