TAIPEI: Taiwan’s presidential candidates expressed desire for peaceful relations with Beijing, which has described January 13 elections as a choice between war and peace and stepped up harassment of the territory it claims as own.
William Lai, the frontrunner and currently Taiwan’s vice president from the ruling Democratic People’s Party, said in a televised debate Saturday that he was open to communicating with the government in Beijing, which has refused to talk to him or President Tsai Ing-wen.
Beijing favours the candidate from the more China-friendly Nationalist, or Kuomintang, Party.