Taiwan presidential hopeful Hou promises to boost island’s defense and restart talks with China

TAIPEI, Taiwan — 

One of Taiwan’s leading opposition party candidates in Saturday’s presidential election has promised to boost the island’s defense capabilities while restarting dialogue with Beijing, which claims the island as its own.

Hou Yu-ih, the presidential candidate from the opposition Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, said Thursday he wants to strengthen Taiwan’s ability to protect itself to deter a potential attack from China.

A former Japanese colony, Taiwan split from China amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing regards the island as Chinese territory and has been steadily increasing its threat to achieve unification by military force if necessary.

As part of its military coercion, China sends warships and military jets near the island of 23 million almost daily. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry has also reported Chinese balloons, which could be used for spying, flying in its vicinity over the past month.

Hou, 66, said he strongly condemned China’s military provocations.

“We have to let them know they have to bear the cost of the war,” Hou said during a news conference in New Taipei City, a municipality bordering the capital, Taipei. He was joined by his running mate, former legislator and TV commentator Jaw Shau-kong.

Hou is mayor of New Taipei, a position from which he took leave to run for president.

Besides bolstering defense, Hou pledged to restart dialogue with Beijing — first through cultural and civil society exchanges — as part of his so-called 3D strategy, which stands for deterrence, dialogue and de-escalation.

Most pre-election polls place Hou second after the governing Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate, William Lai, who currently serves as vice president under Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. Tsai is barred by law from running a third term.

A third candidate, Ko Wen-je from the smaller Taiwan People’s Party, is also running in the election.

Beijing is believed to favor Hou as an alternative to Lai, whom it has criticized as a separatist trying to provoke a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

All three candidates have said they were open to speaking to Beijing, which has refused to hold talks with Lai and Tsai. Tsai’s predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT, was the last Taiwan president to meet with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in 2015 in Singapore.

The vast majority of Taiwanese people favor maintaining the status quo in relations with Beijing as opposed to unification. The KMT has historically endorsed unification with China but has shifted its stance in recent years.

Hou, who described himself Thursday as an atypical KMT member, promised he would not address the issue of unification during his tenure “because Taiwan’s future should be decided by the 23.5 people of Taiwan.”

“I want to use dialogue to minimize the risks,” he said.

Differences over Taiwan are a major flashpoint in U.S.-China relations. U.S. relations with the island are governed by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which makes it American policy to ensure Taiwan has the resources to defend itself and to prevent any unilateral change of status by Beijing.