Illustration: Liu Xidan/GT

Since late June, Taiwan regional leader Lai Ching-te has launched his so-called "10 lectures on unity," with three speeches already delivered as of Sunday. The content is riddled with lies and fallacies. As a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council pointed out, the essence of these speeches is a blatant "Taiwan independence manifesto," inciting confrontation across the Straits, and presenting a patchwork of deeply flawed and misguided separatist rhetoric, which fully exposes Lai's obstinate nature as a die-hard "Taiwan independence" advocate.

It's no surprise that Lai mentioned former Taiwan regional leader Lee Teng-hui in his very first speech - he is Lee's loyal and uncompromising successor. The current state of cross-Straits relations is the direct result of a strategy Lee began implementing three decades ago - deliberately provoking the Chinese mainland in an attempt to draw the US into the conflict. Today, Lai is faithfully carrying out that tactic. Through constant provocations, he is willing to push Taiwan's 23 million people to the brink of war, all to serve the political agenda of "Taiwan independence" separatists on the island.

Look at the results: With the push from "Taiwan independence" separatists for the internationalization of the Taiwan question, certain foreign countries are constantly meddling. The US and Japan continue to fan the flames, while warships from Europe and Australia have begun making frequent transits through the Taiwan Straits. Now, Lai is making repeated provocations in his speeches - openly escalating tensions, antagonizing the mainland and constantly provoking it. But if a conflict really breaks out between the two sides across the Straits, how much will the US actually intervene? That's not something Lai truly cares about.

This entire policy shows utter disregard for the lives of Taiwan's 23 million people. Most of them are kind and simple - as long as their children have a future and there's food on the table, little else matters to them. Many are politically indifferent. Yet through the so-called education reforms and relentless ideological indoctrination by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), some have developed a resistance to reunification.

This is why the DPP fears the visit of Taiwan internet celebrity Chen Chih-han, often referred to as Kuan Chang (Chinese for gym boss) on the mainland, and dreads that videos like his will circulate back on the island, exposing young people to the reality of Chinese mainland's development and way of life - something that starkly contradicts the DPP's propaganda. Such exchanges could ignite the curiosity of many young people in Taiwan, opening their eyes to the truth. More importantly, they would come to understand that ordinary citizens are merely pawns in the schemes of the few in power, led by Lai, and are being used as cannon fodder.

The vast majority of the residents in Taiwan believe that if military reunification ever occurs, the US will surely come to their aid. Does Lai believe that too? It appears that he has long prepared an escape route, positioning Taiwan's Marine Corps at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), ready to help him flee, either to Japan or to a US aircraft carrier. 

In order to untie the knot between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits and ultimately achieve peaceful reunification, a crucial step must be taken: breaking the DPP's long-standing brainwashing of the public. More people need to see through the truth behind the DPP's tactics, which have been carried forward since the days of Lee about 30 years ago. Only when a growing number of people recognize this reality will they stop blindly following the same path.

The author is a retired major general of Taiwan. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn