President assails China’s pressure for reunification
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s president on Sunday vowed to defend the island from China’s rising campaign for reunification after a week of unprecedented tensions with Beijing.
Speaking at the island’s National Day celebrations, a rare show of Taiwanese defense capabilities in the annual parade underlined Tsai Ingwen’s promise to resist Chinese military threats.
“We will do our utmost to prevent the status quo from being unilaterally altered,” President Tsai said. “We will continue to bolster our national defense and demonstrate our determination to defend ourselves in order to ensure that nobody can force Taiwan to take the path China has laid out for us.”
China claims Taiwan as part of its national territory although the island has been self-ruled since it split from the communist-ruled mainland in 1949 after a long civil war.
On Saturday, China’s leader Xi Jinping said reunification with Taiwan “must be realized.”
“No one should underestimate the Chinese people’s strong determination, will and capability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,“Xi declared.
Tsai emphasized Taiwan’s vibrant democracy in contrast with Beijing’s deeply authoritarian, single-party Communist state.
“The path that China has laid out offers neither a free and democratic way of life for Taiwan, nor sovereignty for our 23 million people,“Tsai said.
Tsai rarely singles out China in her public speeches, but in this speech acknowledged the increasing tensions that Taiwan faces as Chinese military harassment escalated in the past year. Since September of last year, China has flown fighter jets more than 800 times towards Taiwan.
The island has strengthened its unofficial ties with countries like Japan, Australia and the U.S. in the face of the rising tensions.
Following the address, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense showed off a range of weaponry including missile launchers and armored vehicles while fighters jets and helicopters soared overhead. These included a formation of F-16, Indigenous Defense Fighters and Mirage 2000’s, which left wide contrails in their wake.
The show of air power was followed by a group of CM32 tanks, followed later by trucks carrying missile systems.
Tsai said Taiwan wanted to contribute to peaceful regional development, even as the situation becomes “more tense and complex” in the Indo-Pacific.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement Sunday night, saying that Tsai’s party, the Democratic Progressive Party, is “the source of turbulence and tension in crossstrait relations, and the biggest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”