Taiwan won’t bow to China pressure, President says in national day speech

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has vowed not to let China force the island accept a path that offers “neither freedom nor democracy.” Addressing a rally on Taiwan‘s national day, Tsai said she hoped tensions would ease across the Taiwan Strait, and reiterated Taiwan will not “act rashly.”

“But there should be absolutely no illusions that the Taiwanese people will bow to pressure,” she said in the speech outside the presidential office in central Taipei.

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“We will continue to bolster our national defence 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,” Tsai said.

Tsai’s remarks come a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing won’t tolerate any “external interference” regarding the “Taiwan question.”

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China has sent a record number of military jets into Taiwan’s air defence zone for four days in a row, prompting the US to express serious concern over Beijing’s public show of force. Last week, a Chinese military plane made a record 150 flights into Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).

Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state – but China views the self-ruled island as a breakaway province. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve unification.

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Speaking in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the revolution that ended the country’s last imperial dynasty, Xi said the biggest obstacle to the reunification of China was the “Taiwan independence” force.

The Taiwan question arose out of the weakness and chaos of the Chinese nation and it will be resolved as national rejuvenation becomes a reality, Xi said.

“This is determined by the general trend of Chinese history, but more importantly, it is the common will of all Chinese people,” Xi said.

Taiwan separated from the PRC in 1949 while fighting a civil war with the CPC headed by Mao Zedong.