Taiwan president warns on China, highlights defence self-reliance

By James Pomfret and Yimou Lee

TAIPEI (Reuters) -China's threat to any individual country is a threat to the world, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Tuesday, adding that the island will continue to work hard to promote defensive self-reliance and foreign arms purchases.

Taiwan will also work hard to promote regional peace and stability, Lai told a conference of international lawmakers meeting to discuss threats posed by China.

"I'd like to stress that China's threat to any individual country is a threat to the world," Lai told the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) conference in Taipei, a group with ties to an international network of several hundred politicians who promote democratic values and call on Beijing to abide by a rules-based international order.

"Taiwan will do its best to put out a democratic protection umbrella with our democratic partners to keep them away from the threat of authoritarianism," Lai said to the lawmakers from 24 countries including Australia, Britain, Japan and Germany.

China, which views the democratically governed island as its territory, has been staging so-called "grey zone" military exercises for years to pressure Taipei to accept Beijing's claim of sovereignty, despite Taiwan's strong objections.

Taiwan's armed forces are dwarfed by those of China's, but it has been modernising its military with the help of allies such as the United States.

In a statement, some IPAC lawmakers said they had received emails and phone calls from Chinese officials before they left for the summit to dissuade them for attending.

"Democratically elected lawmakers are free to visit and support causes of their choosing. This is the normal exercise of their rights and responsibilities as elected officials," the statement said.

China's Foreign Ministry criticised IPAC for what it said was the malicious hyping up of China-related issues.

"We advise the parliamentarians concerned to abandon ideological bias, stop using the Taiwan issue to interfere in China's internal affairs," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian.

(Reporting By James Pomfret and Yimou Lee; Editing by Tom Hogue and Miral Fahmy)