Taiwan has assured that it “does not seek military confrontation” but that it will defend the freedom and democracy of the island

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing Wen said on Friday that she “was not seeking military confrontation,” but warned that “Will do whatever is necessary to defend the freedom and the democratic way of life” of the island, in the face of strong tensions with China.

Tsai mentioned, within the framework of the “Dialogue on innovation and progress in Asia”, held in Taipei, the problems of the Indo-Pacific region in this area, for which expects a “peaceful, stable, predictable and mutually beneficial coexistence”, Taiwanese agency reports CAN.

In this sense, the president expressed its commitment to regional actors to prevent conflicts in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

These statements from Tsai follow his warnings on the “catastrophic consequences” which could lead the island to fall completely into the hands of China, an alert that stems from the serious violation of “regional peace” by Beijing, whose army sent around 150 fighter jets in the first four days of October.

This was seen from Beijing as a show of “force”, but at the same time received strong criticism from the international community, especially for the United States, which is committed to defend the island. Indeed, this Thursday, it was reported that Washington had been training local forces for at least a year in the face of “threats” from China.

Beijing regards Taiwan as a province under its sovereignty and has ensured that the area will be controlled even using force if necessary. In addition, Xi Jinping’s regime views the island’s authorities as separatists.

Tensions between the two nations have intensified in recent weeks, after the island government has expressed its willingness to join the Pacific Free Trade Agreement.

The Taiwanese government this week denounced the incursion of 56 Chinese military planes into its airspace, a daily record that comes after Taipei’s post last week nearly a hundred raids.

The Taiwanese Defense Ministry reported the presence of Chinese planes in the southwest of the Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone. Among them were 34 J-16 fighters, 12 H-6 bombers, two Su-30 fighters, two Yun-8 transport planes and two KJ-500 radar planes. In the afternoon, four other J-16 fighters were detected.

(With information from Europa Press)

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