China sends more warplanes as Taiwan honors late leader

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen speaks during a funeral ceremony for former President Lee Teng-Hui at Aletheia University in Nee Taipei City on September 19, 2020 (Photo by Chang Hsin-wei / Multiple Sources / AFP )

TAIPEI, Taiwan— China sent more fighter jets into Taiwan for a second day on Saturday as the island’s leader, senior government officials, and a high-level U.S. envoy paid tribute to the man who led Taiwan’s transition to democracy, the former president Lee Teng-hui.

Keith Krach, the US undersecretary of state, kept a low profile in the service. Their presence at the event and on the island has prompted a sharp reprimand from China, which sent 18 fighter jets across the middle line of the Taiwan Strait on Friday in an unusually large show of force.

On Saturday, Beijing sent 19 more fighter jets, two of which were bombers, according to the Taiwan Defense Ministry. The island’s air force made its own and deployed an air defense missile system to monitor China’s activities, according to a statement.

The service was held at Aletheia University in Taipei on a pleasant Saturday morning, and Lee was honored by President Tsai Ing-wen for bringing a peaceful political transition to democracy on the island.

Lee had built a separate Taiwanese political identity, distinct from mainland China, which claims that Taiwan as part of its own territory will be forcibly reunited if necessary. Lee’s shedding of a non-Chinese identity and his insistence that the island be treated as an equal country led him into direct conflict with Beijing.

He died on July 30 at the age of 97.

“We have a responsibility to continue their efforts, allowing the will of the people to reshape Taiwan, further defining Taiwan’s identity, and deepening and reinforcing democracy and freedom,” Tsai said.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Dalai Lama also paid tribute from afar.

“We Buddhists believe in one life after another, so it will most likely be reborn in Taiwan,” the Dalai Lama said in a video message. “His rebirth will carry his spirit continually.”

Among the guests was another former Japanese prime minister, Yoshiro Mori. They wore masks and sat spread out on benches.

Lee, an agricultural economist and politician, dedicated his career to building democracy on the island through direct elections and other changes.

He was the first government official to speak and formally apologize for the so-called Incident 228, named after February 28, 1947, when soldiers from the Kuomingtang, or the only ruling Nationalist Party, shot and killed thousands of civilians in a anti-government uprising. The bloodshed marked the beginning of a decades-long period known as the White Terror in which the island was ruled by martial law.

In 1990, Lee voiced his support for the students’ demands for direct elections for President and Vice President of Taiwan and an end to the reservation of legislative seats to represent districts in mainland China. The following year, he oversaw the dismantling of emergency laws put into effect by the Chiang Kai-shek government, effectively reversing the long-standing goal of the nationalists to return to the mainland and remove the Communists from power.

China launched a series of threatening military maneuvers off the coast of mainland Fujian province that included launching missiles off the coast of Taiwan. More missiles were fired immediately before the presidential election in March 1996, and the US response was to send carrier battle groups to the east coast of Taiwan in a show of support.

The Trump administration has taken multiple steps in recent months to strengthen its engagement with Taiwan, enraging China.

Krach is the second senior official to visit Taiwan in two months, after US Secretary of Health Alex Azar in August.

Unlike Azar’s visit, Krach’s was mostly held behind closed doors. On Friday, he held talks with the Taiwanese minister of economic affairs and the deputy prime minister, as well as local business leaders. He also had dinner with Tsai.

China has condemned the visit several times. On Friday, fighter jets from the People’s Liberation Army flew into the island’s air defense identification zone, at least the second round of war games this month with the aim of intimidating supporters of independent political identity. of the island.

“Every time a high-ranking US official visits Taiwan, the PLA fighter jets should be one step closer to the island,” an editorial in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper Global Times said on Friday. “The United States and Taiwan must not misjudge the situation or believe that the exercise is a hoax. If they continue to provoke, a war will inevitably break out. “

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