Taiwan rejects China’s ‘way’ amid military show of force – Boston 25 News

TAIPEI, Taiwan – (AP) – The Taiwanese president on Sunday vowed to defend the island against growing pressure from China for reunification, after a week of unprecedented tensions with Beijing.

Speaking during the island’s National Day celebrations, a rare demonstration of Taiwan’s defense capabilities at the annual parade underscored Tsai Ing-wen’s promise to resist Chinese military threats.

“We will do all we can to prevent the status quo from being unilaterally changed,” President Tsai said.

“We will continue to strengthen our national defense and demonstrate our determination to defend ourselves to ensure that no one can force Taiwan to follow the path that China has mapped out for us,” added the Taiwanese leader.

China claims Taiwan as part of its national territory, although the island has been autonomous since its separation from the communist-ruled mainland in 1949 after a long civil war.

Tsai emphasized the island’s vibrant democracy in contrast to Beijing’s deeply authoritarian one-party communist state.

“The path that China has mapped out offers neither a free and democratic way of life for Taiwan, nor sovereignty for our 23 million people,” Tsai said.

A choir of singers from various native Taiwanese tribes opened the ceremony outside the Presidential Office building in the center of the capital, Taipei.

Polls show Taiwanese overwhelmingly support their current de facto independent state and strongly reject unification with China, which has vowed to bring the island under its control, by military force if necessary.

Tsai rarely singles out China in her public speeches, but in that speech she acknowledged the growing tensions Taiwan faces as Chinese military harassment has escalated over the past year. Since September last year, China has flown fighter jets more than 800 times to Taiwan.

Since last Friday, China has sent a record number of fighter jets to international airspace near Taiwan.

The island has strengthened its unofficial ties with countries like Japan, Australia and the United States in the face of these perceived threats.

“But the more results we get, the more pressure we face,” Tsai said in his speech.

After the speech, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense presented a range of weapons, including missile launchers and armored vehicles, as fighter jets and helicopters hovered above our heads. These included a formation of F-16s, native defense fighters and Mirage 2000s, which left large white streaks in their wake.

The show of air power was followed by a group of CM32 tanks, later followed by trucks carrying missile systems.

Tsai said Taiwan wants to contribute to peaceful regional development even as the situation becomes “more tense and complex” in the Indo-Pacific.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping said on Saturday that reunification with Taiwan “must be achieved”, while asserting that “peaceful” reunification is possible.

“No one should underestimate the strong determination, will and ability of the Chinese people to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Xi said.

The parade on Sunday in Taipei also featured Olympic athletes from Taiwan who won medals at the Tokyo Summer Games, as well as public health officials, including those holding a daily press conference on the pandemic, bearing their distinctive vests with fluorescent yellow edges.

Tsai also called on other legislative parties to put politics aside in order to push for reform of the island’s constitution, a document created by the then-ruling Nationalist Party in 1947 before it lost power and fled China before the Communist takeover two years later. .

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