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China’s threats of military action against Taiwan are “absolutely not an option” and will “only push our two sides further from each other,” Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Monday.
Speaking on Taiwan’s National Day, Tsai said China should not mistake competition within Taiwan’s multiparty democratic political system for weakness and “attempt to divide Taiwanese society.”
“I want to make clear to the Beijing authorities that armed confrontation is absolutely not an option for our two sides,” Tsai said.
“Only by respecting the commitment of the Taiwanese people to our sovereignty, democracy, and freedom can there be a foundation for resuming constructive interaction across the Taiwan Strait,” she said.
Fighter jets and a Chinook helicopter displaying Taiwan’s flag flew overhead while the band from Taipei’s First Girls’ High School played hits ranging from the Beatles to Lady Gaga.
National Day included international guests such as Palau President Surangel S. Whipps Jr., whose country’s blue and yellow flag flew alongside Taiwan’s red banner with its blue square and white star.
Despite its expression of Taiwan’s endurance as an independent political entity with a thriving democracy and free press, the holiday — generally known as “Double Ten” in Taiwan — commemorates a 1911 uprising by troops in the Chinese city of Wuhan that eventually led to downfall of the Qing Dynasty. China’s Communist Party swept the Nationalist government from the mainland amid civil war in 1949 and continues to claim the island.
Tsai’s speech focused largely on Taiwan’s success in strengthening the social security net for an aging society and continuing to grow its high-tech economy despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
But she also emphasized Taiwan’s boosted efforts to protect itself from China’s threat, both with increased imports of foreign hardware and the revitalization of the domestic arms industry and upgraded training for reserves.
