Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen during a speech Sunday said the country will not “bow to pressure” from Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
China’s communist leadership has continuously threatened Taiwan militarily, including sending approximately 150 fighter jets over Taiwanese airspace over a period of days.
“Our position on cross-strait relations remains the same: neither our goodwill nor our commitments will change," Tsai said as the island celebrated its National Day, according to The Daily Wire.
"We call for maintaining the status quo, and we will do our utmost to prevent the status quo from being unilaterally altered.”
“We hope for an easing of cross-strait relations and will not act rashly, but there should be absolutely no illusions that the Taiwanese people will bow to pressure. 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. 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,” she continued.
Taiwan has been independent of mainland China’s rule for over 70 years, but Xi wants to “reunify” Taiwan with the mainland.
Xi called on Taiwan to “join hands” with China in a speech Saturday, saying that “National reunification by peaceful means best serves the interests of the Chinese nation as a whole, including our compatriots in Taiwan Those who forget their heritage, betray their motherland, and seek to split the country will come to no good end; they will be disdained by the people and condemned by history.”
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