TAIPEI –
Democracy is not a crime and autocracy is the real “evil”, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said on Monday after China threatened to impose the death penalty in extreme cases on “diehard” Taiwanese independence separatists.
China, which considers Taiwan its own territory, has made no secret of its distaste for Lai, who took office last month saying he is a “separatist” and staged war games shortly after his inauguration.
On Friday, China increased pressure on Taiwan by issuing new legal guidelines to punish those it says support the island’s formal independence, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction on the democratically governed island.
