Taiwan's election next year is a choice between democracy and autocracy, Vice President Lai Ching-te said in comments broadcast after China carried out military drills around the island in anger at his visit this month to the United States.
Lai, the front-runner in polls to be Taiwan's next president at elections in January, made brief stopovers in the United States this month on his way to and from Paraguay, prompting fury in Beijing which views him as a dangerous separatist given China's territorial claims over the island.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry said on Sunday morning that in the past 24 hours 25 Chinese air force planes had crossed the Taiwan Strait's so-called median line, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides