China being provocative, ignoring olive branches, top Taiwan policymaker says

By Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee

TAIPEI (Reuters) -China is being provocative with an "extreme pressure" campaign against Taiwan and is intentionally ignoring the island's olive branches and goodwill, its top China policy maker told Reuters, as Beijing ratchets up its tactics against Taipei.

China, which views Taiwan as its own territory despite the rejection of that position by the democratic and separately governed island, has stepped up military and political pressure on it, calling President Lai Ching-te a dangerous "separatist".

Since Lai took office in May last year, China has held at least three rounds of major war games around Taiwan, while also threatening the death penalty for "diehard" supporters of its independence, and setting up hotlines to report such activity.

Mainland Affairs Council minister Chiu Chui-cheng said Beijing should own up to its responsibility for stoking tension by exerting "extreme pressure" which includes almost daily military incursions near Taiwan and public influence campaigns.

"It's true that we don't see any sincerity from mainland China," Chiu said this week, speaking in his office in central Taipei.

He repeated the government's offer for talks with China based on equality and respect, but without Beijing's political preconditions.

"We have made a lot of effort and offered many olive branches," Chiu added.

"We are a democratic country and it is impossible for us to accept your political premise of eliminating the Republic of China, belittling Taiwan or treating Taiwan as part of the People's Republic of China."

The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists, and that remains the island's formal name. No peace treaty has ever been signed, and neither government recognises the other.

Asked on Wednesday about Taiwan saying it was showing goodwill towards China, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office said it was an "objective fact" the island was part of China.

"Scheming for Taiwan's independence and secession means there is no way to talk about cross-Strait dialogue and consultations," spokesperson Chen Binhua told reporters in Beijing.

"It will only undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait."

CHINA A "HOSTILE FORCE"

In March, Lai called China a "foreign hostile force", saying it had deepened its influence campaigns and infiltration tactics against the island, while pledging measures to tackle Beijing's efforts to "absorb" Taiwan.

An angry China responded with a new round of war games.

"We were just explaining the facts to everyone," Chiu said of Lai's description of China. "The serious threat level to Taiwan from mainland China, the Beijing authorities, can be described as extreme pressure pressing ever closer."

Chiu said China's hotlines to report supposed separatist activity, which Beijing says generated 6,000 reports, had only served to sow fear amongst Taiwan's sizeable business community in China, spurring some to leave.

He compared such "indiscriminate reporting" to actions during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976 in China, referring to the decade of chaos and violence unleashed after Mao declared class war, turning neighbours and families against each other.

"I myself have heard many of our Taiwanese business people say, 'We have been in mainland China for 30 to 40 years, and we are willing to stay here even if the economy is bad, but living in an environment where we are on edge and worried about being reported day and night, that's why I decided to leave.'"

(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)