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Beijing says Taiwan presidential hopeful William Lai will sell out the island to the US
- China ramps up rebuke of leading presidential contender in Wall Street Journal article accusing Lai of ‘betraying the totality of the Chinese nation’
- Opinion piece by Chinese embassy blasts ‘despicable’ DPP, warning independence efforts are ‘doomed’
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Taiwan’s leading presidential candidate William Lai Ching-te has been accused of “betraying the totality of the Chinese nation” in an opinion piece provided by China’s embassy in Washington that was published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
The article, credited to embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu, was Beijing’s response to an earlier comment piece from Lai published in the same paper on July 4.
Lai, who was nominated in April by Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to run for the island’s top post, is currently Taiwan’s vice-president.
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In his opinion piece, the 63-year-old front runner in the 2024 election stressed pragmatism and consistency as his top priorities if he won the presidential race.
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Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang taps New Taipei City mayor Hou Yu-ih as presidential candidate
Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang taps New Taipei City mayor Hou Yu-ih as presidential candidate
“I will support the cross-strait status quo – which is in the best interests of both the Republic of China, as Taiwan is formally known, and the international community,” he wrote.
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