China views Taiwan's 'elimination' as national cause, says Lai

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan - China views the annexation and "elimination" of Taiwan as its great national cause, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on June 16, telling cadets at the military's premier academy they must know their enemy and not give in to defeatism.

He has faced sustained personal attacks from China since assuming office in May. China views Taiwan as its own territory and Beijing calls Mr Lai a "separatist". China staged war games around Taiwan shortly after his inauguration.

Mr Lai says only Taiwan's people can decide their future and has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but been rebuffed.

Speaking in Kaohsiung in the south of the island on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Whampoa Military Academy, he said today's cadets must recognise the challenges of the "new era".

"The biggest challenge is to face the powerful rise of China, (which is) destroying the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and regards Taiwan's annexation and the elimination of the Republic of China as the great rejuvenating cause of its people," he said, using Taiwan's formal name.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not answer calls seeking comments about Mr Lai's remarks.

Mr Wang Huning, the fourth-ranked leader in China's ruling Communist Party, told a forum about relations with Taiwan in China on June 15 that "reunification is a historical necessity for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation", vowing to "smash any separatist plots".

Mr Lai, at the event attended by senior military officials and also the top US diplomat in Kaohsiung, Mr Neil Gibson, said the cadets must defend Taiwan against being annexed by China and that the island's future can be decided only by its people.

"We really must be able to distinguish between