Taipei mayor calls for less confrontation as China continues sending ships, planes near island

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The China-friendly mayor of Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, on Tuesday called for less confrontation between the sides, even as Beijing continues to send warships and fighter jets to intimidate the self-governing island democracy.

Chiang Wan-an was speaking Tuesday at the 15th Taipei-Shanghai Twin-City Forum, which is not sanctioned by Taiwan’s government, whose official position is that Taiwan is already an independent country with no reason to unify with China.

Chiang put a somewhat romantic twist on his remarks, saying “I am a Taipei mayor elected by the people. I have high expectations for whether there is peace, tension, or development across the strait. I think there should be more … lights on fishing boats at dawn and less noise of (war) ships and (war) planes.”

Between Monday and Tuesday, China sent 10 military aircraft and seven aircraft toward Taiwan, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. Four of the aircraft crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait that forms an unofficial border between the sides.

China considers Taiwan part of its territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary, although economic ties between the sides — especially with China’s financial hub of Shanghai — remain robust, with an emphasis on high-tech.

Shanghai’s representative, Vice Mayor Hua Yuan, told the 102 participants that, “the people of the two sides are all one family.”

Taiwan banned nine Chinese reporters from the gathering, saying they were superfluous, along with a Shanghai official for Taiwan affairs, in response to new, harsh new penalties targeting “diehard Taiwan independence separatists.” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said Beijing’s move had severely disrupted already meager bilateral exchanges and put Taiwanese residents in China at risk.

Faced with China’s massive military, Taiwan has been upgrading its defenses with latest version F-16 fighter jets, missiles, submarines and artillery. On Monday, Taiwan began unloading 38 U.S.-made M1A2T tanks that represent a quantum leap in Taiwan’s outdated land defenses. A further 42 of the tanks are due to be delivered next year, and at least 28 the year after.

Chiang’s Nationalist Party fled to Taiwan in 1949 as Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power on the mainland and long vowed to retake the lost territory. Recent decades have seen it warm to China’s more capitalist leaders, despite public opinion in Taiwan that favors the status quo of de-facto independence.

The Democratic Progressive Party — which China has refused almost all contact with since 2016 — won a third consecutive four-year term in the presidential office in this year’s election, but the party lost the legislature by a thin majority.

Despite the potential for friction, China has limited its actions thus far to firing missiles over the island, near daily air and sea missions and rehearsals of economic blockades that could be a precursor to a full-on invasion.