Tsai paints false picture of situation in Asia: China Daily editorial

Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen's warning that the Chinese mainland poses a threat to Asia is nothing more than her whistling past a graveyard.

Speaking to CNN this week, she said that if countries in the region were not willing to submit to the will of the Chinese mainland they would face similar threats to those made against the island.

It is preposterous for Tsai to describe the Chinese mainland as being despotic in its relations with its Asian neighbors, and to imagine that in doing so those countries will stand behind her pro-independence stance.

By trying to portray herself as standing in the front ranks of those resisting a threat from the Chinese mainland, she was painting a picture of the situation in Asia that does not exist.

The true picture, which she is trying to obscure, is that her administration is becoming increasingly isolated in the world.

Indeed, it is not only internationally, Tsai and the Democratic Progressive Party are also losing their support on the island as well. It is only in the picture she is painting that the Chinese mainland is a threat. But having alienated Beijing with their insistence on Taiwan independence, Tsai and the DPP are now reaping the consequences of their actions.

The trouncing she and the DPP suffered in the local elections in 2018 points to the fact that Taiwan people are fed up with her policy of estranging the island from the Chinese mainland.

Yes, the Chinese mainland has never excluded and it will never renounce the option of using military means to realize reunification. But that does not pose a threat to the Chinese compatriots on the island, only to those secessionists who harbor the ill intention of splitting the island from the motherland.

It is Tsai's refusal to recognize the 1992 Consensus that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China that has spoiled the otherwise good relations across the Taiwan Straits since her election as the leader on the island in 2016.

Tsai has declared that she will stand for reelection in 2020. But she should know that she will hardly be accepted by the Taiwan people unless she changes her stance and acknowledges the one-China principle, as this is the only way any leader on the island can ensure economic prosperity and social progress for the people on the island.

In her interview with CNN, Tsai said she wanted to "complete" her vision for Taiwan. But her lack of support on the island, and even within the DPP, shows how out of touch with reality she is.