Taiwan will never back down in the face of growing totalitarian threats, the island’s vice president and front-runner in January’s presidential election said Sunday during a stopover in New York City.
“We once again promise that no matter how great the threat of totalitarianism is to Taiwan, we will never be afraid or back down, and will adhere to the value of democracy and freedom,” Lai Ching-te said Sunday before leaving for Paraguay — Taipei’s only remaining diplomatic partner in South America — to attend the inauguration of that country’s new president.
Lai’s visit came in defiance of warnings from Beijing, which had criticized the 63-year-old as a “separatist” and “troublemaker.”