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China says Taiwan courting 'disaster' after island's independence bid comment

China says Taiwan courting 'disaster' after island's independence bid comment

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen

The Chinese government warned self-ruledTaiwanon Thursday that it wascourting"disaster",afterthe running mate for President Tsai Ing-wen in Januaryelections said he was working toward the island'sindependence, a red line for Beijing.

Tsai chose former premier William Lai as her vice-presidential candidate on Sunday, the same dayChinasailed an aircraft carrier group through the sensitiveTaiwanStrait, a move Taipei denounced as attempted intimidation.

The issue ofTaiwan's formalindependencehas shot into theelectionspotlight since Lai joined with Tsai.

Their Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is in favour of formalindependence. But Tsai has said she is not looking to change the status quo withChina, in whichTaiwanseeks neither formalindependencenor to be part of the People's Republic ofChina.

In April last year, while premier, Lai told parliament he was a "Taiwanindependenceworker" and that his position was thatTaiwanwas a sovereign, independent country.

China's nationalistic Global Times tabloid responded by sayingChinashould issue an international arrest warrant for him to face prosecution under the country's 2005 Anti-Secession Law.ChinaconsidersTaiwanits territory, to be taken by force if necessary.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Lai repeated that he was a "realistic worker forTaiwanindependence," noting thatTaiwanwas already a sovereign nation called the Republic ofChina, its official name, and not "attached" to mainlandChina.

Responding to a question on those remarks,China'sTaiwanAffairs Office said both sides of theTaiwanStrait belong to oneChina, and that the country's "reunification" is not something any force can stop.

"'Taiwanindependence' is a dead end, and it will only bring profound disaster toTaiwan. It will surely be opposed by all Chinese people, includingTaiwancompatriots," it added.

Tsai asked on Tuesdayafterformally registering her candidacy whether she supported formalTaiwanindependence, said that it was a question she had addressed before and that the Republic ofChinaonTaiwanwas already a sovereign, independent nation.

Tsai's main opponent, Han Kuo-yu of theChina-friendly Kuomintang party, has described formalindependenceas being worse than syphilis.

He said this week that Tsai and Lai's remarks onTaiwanalready being an independent state is equivalent to a "backdoor listing" for formalindependence.

Although the DPP is not technically campaigning on a promise to officially declare the independent Republic ofTaiwan, some of its politicians are more explicit.

The son of formerTaiwanpresident Chen Shui-bian, a DPP councillor in the southern city of Kaohsiung, climbedTaiwan's highest mountain this week and put pictures on his Facebook page of him holding a flag that read, "I amTaiwanese. I stand forTaiwan'sIndependence."