Taiwan’s president is doubling down on sticking it to Beijing, saying China can’t be the ‘motherland’ because its government is younger

Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, has increasingly challenged the arguments and rhetoric that Beijing has used for years to promote Taiwan as its sovereign territory.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on Sunday challenged the idea that mainland China is Taiwan’s “motherland,” saying the island’s government is older than Beijing’s.

The comment from Lai, who took office in May, is the latest in the leader’s series of barbs toward China’s claim that Taiwan is part of its sovereign territory.

Speaking at a party for Taiwan’s upcoming National Day on October 10, Lai said the Republic of China’s government, which governs Taiwan independently, would be celebrating its 113th birthday.

Meanwhile, the People’s Republic of China, which governs mainland China from Beijing under leader Xi Jinping, celebrated its 75th birthday on October 1.

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“Therefore, in terms of age, it is definitely impossible for the People’s Republic of China to become the motherland of the people of the Republic of China,” Lai said.

He then took that rhetoric up a notch.

“On the contrary, the Republic of China may actually be the motherland of the people over 75 years old in the People’s Republic of China,” Lai continued as his audience applauded and cheered.

Lai called on Taiwanese people to be “precise” in congratulating China on its 75th birthday and to avoid using the word “motherland.”

The Republic of China was founded in 1912 after the overthrowing of the Qing Dynasty. After losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communist revolutionaries, its leaders, troops, and several million refugees fled to Taiwan in 1949 — the same year that Mao established the People’s Republic of China.

Beijing has spent decades trying to convince Taiwan’s people and leaders that the island should be absorbed under the mainland’s control, often threatening to do so by force.

But the rise of Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party, which has led Taiwan since 2016, indicates a growing attitude among voters that Taipei should resist Beijing and prepare to defend itself if necessary.

Lai, who served as vice president under former President Tsai Ing-wen, has leaned into that posture as he campaigned for top office and then took power.

Chinese media and officials have responded by calling Lai a “die-hard secessionist. The crime that comes with the label can now carry a sentence as harsh as the death penalty.

Lai’s still keeping the pressure up. On Sunday, he once again described Taiwan as a “sovereign and independent country,” a characterization that deeply angers Beijing. There’s a movement in Taiwan for the island to officially declare independence — which China says is a red line that essentially means war — and Lai has repeatedly alluded to the idea while falling short of championing it.

All of this has made cross-strait dynamics increasingly awkward, with Taiwan still depending heavily on China for trade. In the years that Tsai was president, the island sent up to 43.9% of its annual exports to the mainland and Hong Kong. China even gave Taiwan tariff concessions for over a decade, though it’s been shutting them down.

Between 1991 and 2022, Taiwanese investors put at least $203 billion into China in more than 45,000 approved investment cases, according to government statistics.

Taiwan’s government introduced the New Southbound Policy in 2016, an initiative to focus more on trade with India and Southeast Asia so Taipei can reduce its reliance on China.

That’s all happening against the backdrop of growing strain on relations between China and the US, which announced its largest-ever military aid package of $567 million to Taiwan on September 29.

A Chinese invasion of Taiwan has long been feared to be the breaking point for all-out war, and even nuclear war, between Beijing and Washington.