TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's bipartisan security cooperation efforts suffered a setback on Wednesday (June 18) as President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) voiced frustration over opposition leaders' refusal to attend a high-level national security briefing he had arranged. The president had extended invitations to the chairmen of Taiwan's two main opposition parties — Taiwan People's Party (TPP, 民眾黨) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), who leads the centrist party formed in 2019, and Kuomintang (KMT, 國民黨) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), who heads Taiwan's main opposition party that governed the island for decades until 2000. Both opposition leaders had abruptly declined the invitation just one day before the scheduled meeting, dealing a blow to Lai's efforts to build cross-party consensus on security matters.
Speaking at a meeting of his Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP, 民進黨) central executive committee, Taiwan's president disclosed that the canceled briefing had been designed to share critical intelligence about mounting security challenges confronting the self-governed island. President Lai, who took office in May 2024 after winning the January presidential election, underscored the necessity of placing Taiwan's collective security interests above partisan politics, particularly as cross-strait tensions with Beijing continue to escalate. While political parties naturally engage in competition, they must also find avenues for cooperation on existential matters — "our relationship cannot be reduced to a zero-sum game," Lai told party officials, highlighting his administration's growing concern about China's increasingly assertive military posture toward Taiwan, which China claims as its territory despite the island's separate government for over seven decades.
The president called for unified backing of Taiwan's defense initiatives, including recent proposals to strengthen the island's security apparatus and increase military spending in response to regional threats. Making a distinction between legitimate policy disagreements and fundamental national allegiance, Lai emphasized that divergent political viewpoints should not undermine a shared commitment to Taiwan's core interests. Despite the current setback, the president expressed optimism about potential future cooperation with the TPP and KMT on matters of sovereignty protection and democratic preservation, signaling his administration's continued willingness to engage with opposition parties on critical security matters despite growing polarization in Taiwan's domestic politics. ◼
