Taiwan says China knows armed threats backfire on influencing elections

TAIPEI, Sept 28 (Reuters) – China’s leadership knows that sabre rattling around Taiwan to force an outcome to its liking in elections does not work and Beijing is not likely to try such actions ahead of January’s presidential vote, the Taiwanese foreign minister said Thursday. China has never renounced the use of force to bring democratically governed Taiwan under its control, viewing the island as one of its provinces. In 1996, China lobbed missiles into the Taiwan Strait to try to intimidate the island’s voters against voting for Lee Teng-hui as president, who Beijing despised for his perceived pro-independence sympathies….