China on Tuesday threatened new trade measures against Taiwan, which accused Beijing of “economic coercion” ahead of pivotal weekend elections on the island and also voiced anger at a surprise Chinese satellite launch over its air space.
Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary polls are taking place against a backdrop of a ramped-up war of words between Taiwan and China, which views the island as its own territory despite the strong objections of the Taiwanese government.
Taiwan’s government has accused China of an unprecedented campaign of election interference, using everything from military activity to trade sanctions to sway the vote towards candidates Beijing may prefer.
China has cast the election as a choice between war and peace, and says interference allegations are “dirty tricks” from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to try and win support.
The DPP’s presidential candidate Lai Ching-te said on Tuesday he would maintain the status quo and pursue peace through strength if elected, remaining open to engagement with Beijing under the preconditions of equality and dignity.
Beijing has denounced him as a separatist and warned that any attempt to push for Taiwan’s formal independence means conflict. Despite this, Lai pledged to try to engage with China.
“Peace is priceless and war has no winners,” Lai told reporters at a news conference. “Peace without sovereignty is just like Hong Kong. It is fake peace.”
On Tuesday, China’s commerce ministry said it was looking into further steps to suspend tariff concessions on products including agriculture and fishery, machinery, auto parts and textiles from Taiwan, following up on such a move made against some petrochemical products last month.
“Taiwan authorities have not taken effective measures to lift trade restrictions on China. Instead, they have engaged in political manoeuvring in an attempt to plant blame and evade responsibility,” the commerce ministry said in a statement.
Taiwan’s Office of Trade Negotiations responded by calling on China to “immediately stop using economic coercion to try to interfere in Taiwan’s election.”
