China heaps pressure on Taiwan ahead of a big election
Choose our favoured candidate or suffer the consequences, hints the mainland
THERE IS no doubt which party the Chinese government favours in Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections on January 13th. Officials in Beijing see the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which takes a defiant stance towards China, as a gang of separatists standing in the way of Taiwan’s unification with the mainland. The Kuomintang (KMT) party, on the other hand, is much more friendly towards China. The island faces a choice between “prosperity and recession” and between “peace and war”, say Chinese officials.
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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Trading threats”
From the January 13th 2024 edition
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