Formally named on Wednesday by Taiwan's ruling party as its candidate in a presidential poll due in January, Vice President William Lai urged people to "choose democracy" just a day after China ended military drills around the self-ruled island.
Infuriated by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles last week, Beijing conducted three days of drills, followed by combat training exercises on Tuesday to show it could forcefully take control of the island, which China claims as its own.
Making his first speech after receiving the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) nomination, Lai contrasted Tsai's defence of democracy with the stance taken by her predecessor, former president Ma Ying-jeou from the main opposition party, the Kuomintang or KMT, who visited China around the same time that Tsai was in the United States.
"Former President Ma walked back into the framework of the 'One China' principle, whereas President Tsai is on the democratic path," Lai said.
"These will be the two completely different choices the country will face after 2024, so the 2024 election will decide Taiwan's direction - on the continuation of a democratic system, the next generation's happiness, as well as peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific."
Ma, who held office from 2008 to 2016, is the first former Taiwanese president to ever visit China. Since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's communists, no serving island leader has visited China.
At the end of his trip, Ma said Tsai's administration has led Taiwan into danger, forcing the island to choose "between peace and war."
The DPP criticised Ma for failing to defend Taiwan's sovereignty, but Ma said his trip proved that Taiwan and China could engage under the principle that both are part of a single China though each can have its own interpretation of the term.
Tsai and her government reject China's sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future. She has repeatedly offered talks with China but been rebuffed, with Beijing viewing her as a separatist.
As in the last election in 2020, which the DPP won handily by promising to stand up to China, relations with Beijing are likely to top the agenda in the coming election campaign.
Tsai cannot run again as president due to constitutional term limits, and Lai was the DPP's only nominee, making the announcement a formality.
He had assumed the party's chairmanship in January after Tsai resigned as chairwoman in November following the DPP's trouncing at local elections.
The KMT, which traditionally favours close ties with Beijing, has not decided on its presidential candidate yet. Hou Yu-ih, the KMT mayor of New Taipei city, is considered to be a frontrunner.
(Reporting by Sarah Wu; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
