DPP candidate Lai Ching-te. Photo: VCG

The deputy regional leader of Taiwan island Lai Ching-te, who is also a candidate of the separatist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for the 2024 Taiwan regional leader's election, has been snubbed by the US during his short stay in New York and his event to propagate separatism was given the cold shoulder as no senior officials or politicians attended, while many people in the US who oppose Taiwan separatism and support peace in the Taiwan Straits came to protest against him.

Analysts from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan said Lai is using this trip to serve his election campaign, and he is trying to use Western political correctness and ideology about "freedom and democracy" to shield his dangerous and ridiculous separatism. He wants to paint himself as a "champion" to safeguard so-called democracy in Taiwan by resisting the common goal of all Chinese people around the world - the reunification of China.

Lai is trying to make his voters on the island and his supporters in the US believe that "Taiwan Independence vs Reunification of China" can be equated to a choice between "democracy vs authoritarianism," and he and his DPP have never told the truth to the people on the island that the Chinese mainland's proposal of "one country, two systems" has never asked Taiwan to abandon its current political system which is different from the mainland's, experts said. 

This kind of trick frequently played by DPP separatists is dangerous and if Washington tolerates and endorses his statement, this will go against the US promise of "opposing Taiwan independence," experts noted.  

Separatists get protested 

According to reports by local media, during Lai's short stay in New York, over 100 protesters from multiple organizations formed by Chinese Americans gathered and protested outside the venue where Lai held a banquet to propagate his separatist political stance. These protesters held banners with slogans like "One China, Peaceful reunification," "Taiwan separatism, a way to war!", "We don't welcome troublemaker!" and "Taiwan is part of China." 

The Alliance for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification, a US-based civil organization to promote the peaceful reunification of China, and dozens of other anti-separatist and pro-reunification organizations in the US published a statement in local Chinese-language newspaper the World Journal to protest Lai's actions to solicit support from foreign forces for "Taiwan independence," according to media reports. They oppose the US in its support and toleration for Taiwan separatists in all forms, and they accused Lai and the DPP's separatist ideas over disturbing the peace and stability of the Taiwan Straits.

Lai held a banquet in Manhattan on Sunday to propagate his political views to overseas Chinese who are from Taiwan, and he gave a 25-minute speech in which he claimed that Taiwan should become a "beacon of freedom, democracy and human rights," and should not "surrender to authoritarianism." 

All of the protests aimed at Lai during his short stay in New York prove that the conflict between China's reunification and Taiwan separatism has never been about so-called "authoritarianism vs democracy," but about "the common goal shared by all Chinese people around the world" vs "betrayers of the Chinese nation who want to serve as a pawn for foreign forces in confronting their own motherland."

Zheng Bo-yu, a Taiwan observer and entrepreneur who conducts business on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, told the Global Times on Monday that Lai's propaganda in New York is actually a show to cheat voters in Taiwan. "He wants to make the people in Taiwan believe that he's being welcomed by the US, and his idea of separatism is being welcomed as well. But the fact shows that he has been given the cold shoulder by the US and is not welcomed by the locals."

Zheng said that Lai has always hyped concepts like "democracy," "freedom," and "human rights," but many people in Taiwan have found that under the rule of the DPP, "we, the people in Taiwan, are being threatened by the separatists, and the friendly exchanges with the Chinese mainland have been interrupted, the DPP tries to cut off the historic and cultural bonds between Taiwan and the mainland, creates an identity crisis for everyone on the island, and the economic situation gets worse and worse due to the troubling cross-Straits relations because the DPP has abandoned the 1992 consensus which respects the 'one-China principle.'"

Lai and his DPP are actually harming human rights on the island, and their act of transforming "Taiwan independence" separatism into an "unchallengeable political correctness" on the island is actually against the spirit of democracy and freedom, Taiwan observers said. 

Unfortunately, most politicians and media outlets in Taiwan never tell the truth to Taiwan people that the mainland is open for negotiation with all political groups in Taiwan about the "two systems" solution to solve the Taiwan question under the framework of the "one-China principle," said analysts. 

"On one hand, many Taiwan people are sick of the DPP and Lai's propaganda. Lai's nickname in Taiwan is 'Lie Cheater' which sounds similar to his full name 'Lai Ching-te.' On the other hand, many Taiwan people are afraid of change, so most of them are used to the status quo and unable to make meaningful change, and with support and encouragement from the US, it's hard to say what would happen in the 2024 election," Zheng noted.

US hypocrisy 

The Taiwan authorities and separatist politicians are all puppets controlled by the US, and their acts and speeches all serve the US-launched new cold war against China, which hypes a new ideological confrontation between "democracy" and "authoritarianism," Li Fei, a professor at the Taiwan Research Center at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.

Although the Biden administration wants to minimize the impact brought by Lai's "stopover" in America by not sending senior officials and politicians to his event, Washington still wants to create opportunities to have communication with the DPP candidate for the 2024 election, Li noted.

"All in all, the US won't support China's reunification, as it needs the Chinese in Taiwan to fight the Chinese in the mainland, to use Taiwan as a tool to contain and slow down the development of the mainland, but the US dares not openly support 'Taiwan independence' as this will cause a war that the US can't win. Therefore, Lai, as a separatist, on one hand is an ideal puppet, on the other hand, if he gets too extreme, he will ruin the US' overall plan to compete with China," Li said.

During his short stay in New York, Lai was ignored by the US and locals protested his visit, but he will return to the US again on his way back to Taiwan on Tuesday, so it might be too early to say he will be snubbed by the US, said some analysts, adding that even if no senior officials or Congress members meet with him, Washington can still have communication with Lai via non-public channels. 

"Lai actually wants to use his stay in the US as a chance to trumpet how popular he is there, but the low-profile of the US has just increasingly embarrassed him. Through watching media coverage about Lai's event in the US, more and more Taiwan people find that Washington holds no respect for the DPP and Lai at all, and the so-called best ever relationship between Washington and Taipei trumpeted by the DPP is nothing but a joke," Zheng noted.