Taiwan’s foreign minister warns Beijing not to retaliate if it doesn’t like election result
- Joseph Wu also says mainland China shouldn’t ‘read too much into’ Saturday’s vote
- He says the government and military will monitor any changes to the cross-strait situation
Wu told reporters on Thursday that Beijing should not “read too much into” Taiwan’s elections, and that the government and military would be monitoring any changes to the cross-strait situation after the vote.
Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory, and has proposed bringing the democratic island into its fold through a “one country, two systems” model of semi-sovereignty.
“This is our election – it’s not China’s election,” Wu said at a briefing. “If China wants to play with democracies in other countries so much, maybe they can try with their own elections at some point.
“If China reads too much into our election and sees that somebody’s election victory happens to be its defeat, then there might be likely scenarios that China would engage in military intimidation or diplomatic isolation, or using economic measures as a punishment against Taiwan – that is not what we want to see,” he said.
