TAIPEI • Taiwan will keep bolstering its defences to ensure nobody can force the island to accept the path China has laid down that offers neither freedom nor democracy, President Tsai Ing-wen said yesterday, in a riposte to Beijing that its government denounced.
Claimed by China as its own territory, Taiwan has come under growing military and political pressure to accept Beijing's rule, including repeated Chinese air force missions in the island's air defence identification zone, to international concern.
Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed on Saturday to realise peaceful reunification with Taiwan but did not mention the use of force. Still, he got an angry reaction from Taipei, which said only Taiwan's people can decide its future.
Addressing a National Day rally, Ms Tsai said she hoped for an easing of tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and reiterated that Taipei 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.
"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," Ms Tsai added.
"This is because 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."
China has offered a "one country, two systems" model of autonomy to Taiwan, much like with Hong Kong, but all major Taiwan parties have rejected that, especially after China's security crackdown in the former British colony.
Ms Tsai repeated an offer to talk to China on the basis of parity, but Beijing, responding some nine hours after she spoke, offered condemnation, saying the country must be "reunified" and that seeking independence closes the door to talks.
"This speech advocated Taiwan independence, incited confrontation, cut apart history and distorted facts," China's Taiwan Affairs Office said.
"The independence provocation by the Democratic Progressive Party authorities is the source of tension and turbulence in cross-strait relations and the greatest threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," it added, referring to Ms Tsai's ruling party.
Beijing has refused to deal with Ms Tsai, calling her a separatist who refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of "one China", and does not recognise Taiwan's government.
Ms Tsai says Taiwan is an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name, and that she will not compromise on defending its sovereignty or freedom.
Still, Taiwan's goodwill will not change, and it will do all it can to prevent the status quo with China from being unilaterally altered, she added. Ms Tsai warned that Taiwan's situation is "more complex and fluid than at any other point in the past 72 years", and that China's routine military presence in Taiwan's air defence zone has seriously affected national security and aviation safety.
She is overseeing a military modernisation programme to bolster its defences and deterrence, including building its own submarines and long-range missiles.
Taiwan stands on the frontlines of defending democracy, Ms Tsai added. "The more we achieve, the greater the pressure we face from China. So I want to remind all my fellow citizens that we do not have the privilege of letting down our guard."
REUTERS
