China calls Taiwan president frontrunner a destroyer of peace

China’s government called the frontrunner for Taiwan’s next president “confrontational” and a destroyer of peace after he spoke at a presidential debate and said the island’s sovereignty and independence belong to its people.
The Jan. 13 presidential and parliamentary elections are happening at a time of fraught relations between Beijing and Taipei. China has been ramping up military pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over democratically-governed Taiwan.
China has taken particular exception to current Vice President Lai Ching-te, the presidential candidate for Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Party (DPP) and leading in opinion polls by varying margins, saying he is a dangerous separatist.
Responding late on Saturday to Lai’s comments at a live televised presidential debate earlier in the day, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Lai had “exposed his true face as a stubborn ‘worker for Taiwan independence’ and destroyer of peace across the Taiwan Strait”.