Lai Calls for Restraint as China Launches Live-Fire Drills in Yellow Sea

TaiwanPlus News

President Lai Ching-te is calling on China to show restraint and avoid being a "regional troublemaker" as Beijing launches military drills in the Yellow Sea. The drills are widely seen as reflecting the souring of China-Japan ties after Japan's prime minister said Tokyo might intervene in a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Transcript

00:00President Lai Qingde has a message for Beijing as it begins new military drills on the Yellow

00:05Sea.

00:06Stop adding to tensions in a volatile part of the world.

00:10The three-day live fire drills starting Monday come as friction mounts between China and

00:14Japan across the water, and the source of that friction is Taiwan.

00:19China claims Taiwan and won't rule out taking it by force, but earlier this month, Japan's

00:24Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae said a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could bring a Japanese military

00:30response.

00:31Ties have quickly soured, and China's announcement of three days of drills starting Monday seems

00:36to be the latest low point.

00:38Lai Qingde says China is a major power, and has a responsibility to act like one.

00:43It's not just drills either.

00:59China has warned its citizens against travel to Japan, and in a now-deleted social media

01:04post, its consul in Osaka seemed to threaten Japan's Prime Minister over her Taiwan remarks.

01:10But Taiwan's chief in charge of Japan ties, Su Jiaquan, says Japan has grown numb to China's

01:15behaviour, and now it's even starting to get fed up.

01:18I think its kind of military force is a kind of threat to Japan, or a threat to Taiwan.

01:31Japanese military force towards Japan continues to fight the best nation.

01:44I think Japanese military force is so overwhelmed.

01:46I hope that Japanese military force has been so upset and so excited.

01:52So, it's not easy to get the benefit from China because it's a good benefit from China.

01:58And there are signals from Washington that Japan and Taiwan don't stand alone.

02:04U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass put out this social media post, saying the U.S.

02:09and Japan share a resolve to preserve stability and peace in the Taiwan Strait.

02:14China is going ahead with the drills regardless, but a Kyoto news agency poll Sunday found

02:19around 49% of Japanese people support Japan's involvement if China attacks Taiwan, against

02:25around 44% opposed.

02:27And if the backlash Su Jiachuan sees is real, China may find its tactics push Japan further

02:33away.

02:34Find Wang and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.

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