TAIPÉI, Taiwan (AP) – Taiwan’s president on Sunday called for the current political situation to be maintained, in a candid speech acknowledging mounting pressure from China.
Tsai Ing-wen also firmly rejected Chinese military coercion, a stance reinforced by an unusual display of Taiwan’s defensive capabilities at a parade on its national holiday.
A choir with members of different indigenous tribes of Taiwan sang to open the ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building, in central Taipei, built by the Japanese who ruled the island as a colony for 500 years and until the end of World War II. World.
“We will do everything possible to prevent the status quo from being unilaterally altered,” he said. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, although the island has an independent government.
“We will continue to strengthen our national defense and show our determination to defend ourselves to ensure that no one can force Taiwan to follow the path that China has charted for us,” Tsai said. “This is because the path China has laid out offers us neither a free and democratic way of life for Taiwan nor sovereignty for our 23 million people.”
Polls show an overwhelming majority in favor of maintaining its de facto independent status and a firm rejection of unification with China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territorial unity, susceptible to being controlled by force if necessary. Taiwan has become a dynamic democracy, while China remains deeply authoritarian, dominated by the one-party system of the Communist Party.
Tsai, who does not specifically mention China in his public speeches, admitted that the increasingly tense situation facing Taiwan in the face of Chinese military harassment has worsened in the past year. Since September last year, China has sent fighters to Taiwan more than 800 times.
As a result of these tensions, the island has strengthened its unofficial ties with Japan, Australia and the United States. “But the more we achieve, the greater the pressure we face from China,” he said.
Following Tsai’s speech, the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense demonstrated weapons in a parade that included missile launchers and armored vehicles, while fighters and helicopters flew overhead.
Tsai said Taiwan wants to contribute to the peaceful development of the region, although the situation “becomes more tense and complex” in the Indo-Pacific.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Saturday that reunification with Taiwan “must be completed” and said that peaceful reunification would be in the interests of the entire nation, including the Taiwanese.
“No one should underestimate the steadfast determination of the Chinese people, their will and their ability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.
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