The Chinese Communist Party says that the Taiwanese president, Lai Ching-te, is “playing with fire” by acting to counter “what he warned was expanding Chinese subversion and spying.”
The New York Times reports: “Across the Taiwan Strait, Beijing hit back, sending a surge of military planes and ships near the island and warning that he was ‘playing with fire.’ In Taiwan, Mr. Lai’s opponents accused him of dangerously goading China” (March 23, 2025).
Lai may be “wagering that he can—and, his supporters say, must—take a harder line against Chinese influence now, notwithstanding the threats from Beijing and the possibility that Taiwan’s opposition parties will dig in deeper against his agenda.”
Mr. Lai appears to have concluded that China will limit its actions against Taiwan while Beijing focuses on trying to negotiate with President Trump over the escalating trade war, said David Sacks, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who monitors Taiwanese affairs.
“The best guess is that he assessed that, if he was going to do this, he should do it at a time when China doesn’t want something to complicate its discussions with the United States,” Mr. Sacks, in an interview, said of Mr. Lai’s security steps….
[President Lai elaborated] 17 steps to fight back, including restoring military courts to try Taiwanese military personnel accused of espionage and other security crimes. He wants to more closely monitor Taiwanese people’s contacts with China to stop what he said was Beijing’s political exploitation of religious, educational and cultural exchanges. He demanded greater disclosure about Taiwanese politicians who visit China. Many such politicians belong to the opposition Nationalist Party.
Beijing prefers surrender. Meanwhile, the opposition Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang, “which favors ties and talks with China, accused Mr. Lai of needlessly fanning tensions.”
According to one Nationalist lawmaker, Hsu Chiao-hsin, “Specifically singling out mainland China and the Chinese Communist Party is to some degree a provocation.” Wow. “This will trigger even more tensions across the strait.”
The hope seems to be that if the Taiwanese do not notice that the Chinese government is intent upon conquering them, China will lose interest and go away.
Lai is trying to increase the military budget despite recent legislatively imposed cuts in government spending.
Russell Hsiao, executive director of the Global Taiwan Institute, suspects that Lai “will eventually be able to get a special budget [to increase military spending] passed by the legislature, but at some political costs. The opposition parties will make him and the ruling party pay a political price, even though, eventually, they will go along with it—in part because they know that Washington is paying close attention.”
President Trump has been urging the ROC to spend more on defense.
Also see:
Office of the President, Republic of China (Taiwan): “President Lai holds press conference following high-level national security meeting” (March 13, 2025)
