Taiwan's Coast Guard said on Monday that China may try to disrupt the public's morale in Taiwan ahead of President Lai Ching Te's anniversary, which is this week. This was after social media images of a person placing a Chinese flag at a Taiwanese beach surfaced.

China has called Lai a separatist and rejected his offer of talks. Lai will complete a year as president on Tuesday.

Lai says that only Taiwanese people can decide the future of their island.

The Taiwanese China Policy Council, which is responsible for Mainland Affairs in Taiwan, said last week that Beijing may conduct more military exercises to "stoke up trouble" during the anniversary.

Images posted on Chinese social networks on Sunday showed a man claiming to have crossed the Taiwan Strait in a small boat, landing on a remote island and planting a Chinese Flag, before returning to China. Later, the video was deleted.

Taiwan's Coast Guard announced on Friday that it had arrested 2 Chinese nationals who had illegally entered Taiwan on a rubberboat and landed at a beach along the northwest coast of the island.

Hsieh Chingchin, the deputy head of Taiwan’s coastguard, was asked about the two incidents. He said that China has been using the drills to exert pressure on Taiwan for a long time.

He told reporters that it was not impossible that the Chinese communists would use similar videos and tactics to wage political warfare on the anniversary date of President Lai’s inauguration to undermine the morale of the Chinese people.

Hsieh confirmed that the video was taken at the beach of Taoyuan in Taiwan, but it is still under investigation as to whether the filming was done by someone from China or someone in Taiwan.

The China Taiwan Affairs Office didn't immediately respond to our request for comment. Reporting by Yi-Mou and Jeanny KAO; Writing by Ben Blanchard, Editing by Tom Hogue & Clarence Fernandez

(source: Reuters)