The campaigning for president of the Republic of China goes into its final fast-and-furious day in a state of suspended animation on the most vital issue  — how will the Chinese republic deal with the communist mainland?

Opinions on that question are sharply divided, but in the final hours before as many as 19 million of the 24 million people on the island province go to the polls on Saturday, the three leading contenders were waffling as hard as they could.

How else to please as many voters as possible without confronting Beijing with a challenge that President Xi would surely answer with rhetoric that might or might not frighten the citizens of the free republic, who are accustomed to shrugging off much of what the communist party boss to their north has to say?

On a motorcade south of the island’s capital city of Taipei, the  Taipei Times reported the front-running candidate and current vice president, Lai Ching-te, calling for building up strong defenses. He did not have to say, of course, against whom.

A mainland state mouthpiece, Global Times, quoted a senior official with a Beijing front organization, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, as citing “preparations in place to contain and destroy the secessionist attempt of ‘Taiwan independence.’”

Since “uncertainty still exists,” he said, “we have to be prepared to prevent this risk.” 

Those vague words were a far cry from hinting that mainland planes and ships would do more than intrude into the skies and seas around Taiwan in now routine gestures of intimidation. Nor has the launch from China of spy balloons on flights near and occasionally over the island done much more than raise eyebrows. 

The complicated feelings among Taiwan candidates, and voters, crystallized in the past day or two around a former Taiwan president, Ma Ying-jeou, erstwhile leader of the Kuomintang or Nationalist Party whose forces fled the mainland in the 1949 Communist revolution. 

Mr. Ma, who served as president for two terms before the election of Ms. Tsai in 2016, had the temerity to speak out boldly in favor of reconciliation and perhaps even unity with Beijing. Attacking Mr. Ma’s remarks, Mr. Lai flashed the specter of Beijing’s ruthless crackdown on democratic freedom in the former British colony of Hong Kong.

What has happened in Hong Kong, the Taipei Times quoted Mr. Lai as saying, “is certainly not where Taiwanese want to go.”

Incredibly, the Kuomintang candidate, Hou Yu-yi, embarrassed by such a strong declaration of support for the mainland, repudiated Mr. Ma’s remarks even though Mr. Hou supports a gentle approach toward Beijing in the interests of the enormous economic relationship between the two Chinas.

Mr. Ma, by far the most successful KMT political leader, was not even invited to the KMT’s final campaign rally. 

A former police detective who has served as mayor of New Taipei City, Mr. Hou said bluntly that he and Mr. Ma “have very different positions on certain issues” and “I will not touch on issues regarding unification with China.”

Carefully ambiguous, he said “we cannot rely on goodwill from one side” and “it would be very dangerous if we have absolutely no preparation.” 

Did that exercise in double talk prompt the candidate of Taiwan’s “third party,” Ko Wen-je, a medical doctor, to adopt a more forthright position? Not likely.

The leader of his own creation, the Taiwanese People’s Party, Dr. Ko said Taipei and Beijing should indeed talk to each other. However, the Taiwan News quoted him as saying, “trusting others from the start is too dangerous.” His priority was “Taiwan autonomy” and then “cross-strait peace.”