Taiwan President is escalating tensions, China says ahead of key speech

China criticizes Taiwan president ahead of national day speech, escalating tensions over sovereignty claims and potential military response.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te is escalating tensions with "sinister intentions", China's government said, ahead of a keynote speech Mr. Lai will give in Taipei that could set off a Chinese military response.

Mr. Lai, who took office in May after winning an election in January, is detested by China, which calls him a “separatist.” Beijing claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a view Lai and his government reject.

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Responding late on Tuesday (October 8) to comments Mr. Lai gave on the weekend that it is "impossible" for the People's Republic of China to become Taiwan's motherland because Taiwan has older political roots, China's Taiwan Affairs Office said he was confusing right from wrong.

Mr. Lai continues to peddle a theory that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are two separate countries, it said in a statement.

"Lai Ching-te's Taiwan independence fallacy is just old wine in a new bottle, and again exposes his obstinate stance on Taiwan independence and his sinister intentions of escalating hostility and confrontation," it added.

Mr. Lai will give his main National Day speech on Thursday (October 10), which marks the overthrow of the last Chinese dynasty in 1911 and the ushering in of the Republic of China.