'Hawkish' China military squeeze on Taiwan likely after election

Explore the Taiwan Strait arms race & Chinese military pressure in the run-up to the Jan 13 elections. China warns of conflict if independence is pushed.

The arms race across the Taiwan Strait and Chinese military pressure against the island Beijing claims as its "sacred" territory is unlikely to end no matter who wins Taiwan's closely watched elections.

China has cast the January 13 presidential and parliamentary elections as a choice between war and peace, warning an attempt to push for Taiwan's formal independence means conflict.

China has focused its anger in the run-up to the vote on Lai Ching-te, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) presidential candidate, rebuffing his calls for talks as it views him as a separatist.

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Both the DPP and Taiwan's largest opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), say only they can preserve the peace, and both have also committed to bolstering Taiwan's defences and say only the island's people can decide their future.

The KMT traditionally favours close ties with China although it denies being pro-Beijing.

Wang Zaixi, a deputy head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office between 2000 and 2006 and a retired Chinese army major general, was quoted last month in China's Global Times newspaper as saying the DPP's Lai was an "extremist" independence supporter.