The Taiwanese president also asked China to ‘live up to the expectations of the international community.’
TAIPEI, Taiwan—Taiwan’s freedom and way of life are being threatened by authoritarianism, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said, adding that he is committed to defending the island’s sovereignty from annexation or infringement.
Lai, who took office in May, delivered a keynote national address in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei on Oct. 10, which is celebrated as National Day in Taiwan. This year, the celebration also marked Taiwan’s 113th birthday.
“On this land, democracy and freedom are growing and thriving. The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan,” Lai said, referring to China’s official name.
Lai reiterated Taiwan’s position of maintaining the current status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, while seeking to hold equal and dignified talks with the Chinese communist regime.
“As president, my mission is to ensure that our nation endures and progresses,” Lai said. “I will also uphold the commitment to resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty.”
The Chinese regime’s hostility toward Taiwan and its liberal democratic system has grown since Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power in 2016, when Lai’s predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, began the first of her two terms in office. Lai, who is currently the DPP chairman, was vice president during the Tsai administration.
The regime considers both Tsai and Lai to be “separatists,” a phrase Beijing frequently uses for any Taiwanese citizen who advocates for the island’s sovereignty.
Lai said his administration would like to work with the Chinese regime on issues such as addressing climate change, combating infectious diseases, and maintaining regional security.
He urged China to “live up to the expectations of the international community” and apply its influence to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflicts in the Middle East.
“Taiwan faces relentless challenges, and the world’s challenges are just as much our own,” Lai said. “And expanding authoritarianism is posing a host of challenges to the rules-based international order, threatening our hard-won free and democratic way of life.”
He said that his administration will focus on developing five “trusted industry sectors,” namely semiconductors, artificial intelligence, military, security and surveillance, and next-generation communications.
Before his speech, Lai met with more than 140 foreign guests at the Presidential Office, including Reps. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Carol Miller (R-W.Va.). The three U.S. lawmakers arrived in Taiwan on Oct. 6.
‘Calm and Rational’
The Chinese military has ramped up its activities around Taiwan in recent years. Its actions have included air sorties, naval deployment, and live-fire exercises. Just days after Lai’s inauguration in May, China launched what it called “punishment” military drills around the island.
Before Lai delivered his speech on Oct. 10, Taiwanese and Western officials warned that China could stage more military drills in response to his address.
“Even though we have not seen significant military activity or exercises following previous 10/10 speeches, we are prepared that Beijing may choose to use this as a pretext this year,” a senior U.S. administration official said on Oct. 9. “We see no justification for a routine annual celebration to be used in this manner. Coercive actions like this against Taiwan and in the cross-Strait context, in our view, undermine cross-Strait stability.”
Last year, CIA Director William Burns said that Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping had instructed China’s military to be ready by 2027 to conduct a successful invasion of Taiwan.
Despite China’s military aggression, most Taiwanese don’t believe China will invade the island in the coming five years, according to a poll published by Taiwan’s top military think tank, the Institute for National Defence and Security Research (INDSR), on Oct. 9.
The poll found that 61 percent of people think it was “unlikely or very unlikely” that China would launch an attack on Taiwan in the next five-year period. The poll surveyed around 1,200 people in September.
“Most people do not think China’s territorial ambitions will manifest themselves in the form of attacking Taiwan,” INDSR researcher Christina Chen said. “Most people see China’s territorial ambitions as a serious threat.”
Chen added that Taiwanese people are also concerned about other Chinese threats, such as military drills and propaganda campaigns.
“That means Taiwanese people are aware of the threat but remain calm and rational with the expectations of an imminent war,” the INDSR stated.
More than 67 percent of those polled said they would fight back if China attacked, but respondents were almost equally divided on whether Taiwan’s military was capable of defending the island.
The survey also found a split in opinion on whether the United States would help defend Taiwan: 74 percent believed the U.S. government was likely to “indirectly” help Taiwan by providing food, medical supplies, and weapons, while 52 percent believed the U.S. military would send its armed forces to intervene.
The United States and Taiwan are currently not formal allies and Washington has long maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity,” meaning that the United States is deliberately vague on the question of whether it would come to Taiwan’s defense.
‘Isolate the Island’
Amrita Jash, an assistant professor at India’s Manipal Academy of Higher Education, wrote in a recent analysis that China’s military exercises around Taiwan have been more sophisticated in recent years, with the increasing use of advanced technologies such as drones.
“China’s military drills exhibit a clear trend of being ‘frequent, intense, large-scale and multi-domain’ in nature—with a twin objective of demonstrating China’s ability to blockade and isolate the island, and expressing Beijing’s displeasure with any perceived moves towards Taiwan’s independence,” he wrote in the analysis, published by the Washington-based Global Taiwan Institute on Oct. 2.
Taiwan is hugely dependent on food and energy imports for its population of about 23 million people, and any disruptions to these purchases would take a heavy toll on its economy.
The U.S. Institute of Peace, in an article published on Oct. 9, said China would hurt its own economy should it decide to impose a sea and air blockade on Taiwan.
According to the article, China’s blockade “would likely halt shipments of the advanced microchips the Chinese economy needs to keep technological pace with the U.S., not to mention undercutting the economic integration it seeks with the island.”
“If China blocks exports from an island that accounts for about 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductor capacity,” the article stated, “the U.S. could probably draw wide support for retaliatory measures of its own, possibly even squeezing China at various maritime chokepoints.”
If the Chinese regime invaded Taiwan, China would lose foreign capital, critical technology, and tax revenue, dealing a significant blow to its economy, the article added.
Reuters contributed to this report.