Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen says any differences between her country and China must be resolved peacefully, and maintaining the status quo is ‘critical’ to ensuring peace, Reuters reports.
Taiwan sought ‘peaceful coexistence’ with China, Tsai said in her last national day speech (after two terms in office, she cannot stand again in January’s next presidential elections). But she vowed the island would remain democratic for generations to come.
China regards Taiwan as its own territory.
Reuters reports that the island state has come under military and political pressure from Beijing, including two major sets of Chinese war games near the island since August last year.
Tsai said international support for Taiwan had reached an ‘unprecedented height’.
‘Since this is a time we can now face the world with confidence and resolve, we can also be calm and self-assured in facing China, creating conditions for peaceful coexistence and future developments across the Taiwan Strait.’
Tsai said it was her duty to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and its democratic, free way of life, seeking ‘free, unrestricted, and unburdened interactions’ between Taiwan and China’s people.
Taiwan celebrates October 10 as its national day, marking an uprising in 1911 that ended China’s last imperial dynasty and ushered in the Republic of China. The republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists, who set up the People’s Republic of China.