Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said the island is determined to defend its sovereignty and boost its defence in the face of China's increasing expansion, after Beijing fired rockets towards the island as part of military drills.
The international community is watching to see whether the Taiwanese people possess the resolve to defend themselves, he said in a New Year's speech broadcast live from the presidential office in Taipei.
"As president, my stance has always been clear: to resolutely defend national sovereignty and strengthen national defence," he said, noting China had targeted Taiwan's newly added combat capabilities as a "hypothetical adversary" in their drills this week.
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Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Thursday that the island is determined to defend its sovereignty and bolster its defence in the face of China’s growing assertiveness, after Beijing fired rockets towards Taiwan during military drills.
ReplyDelete“The international community is watching to see whether the Taiwanese people possess the resolve to defend themselves,” Lai said in a New Year’s speech broadcast live from the presidential office in Taipei.
He urged opposition parties to support his proposal to increase Taiwan’s defence spending by $40 billion, a plan currently stalled amid a political deadlock in the opposition-controlled parliament.
Beijing has condemned Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te’s New Year’s Day speech – including his vow to boost the island’s defences – as full of “lies, falsehoods, hostility and malice” and an attempt to “mislead the Taiwanese people and international public opinion”.
ReplyDeleteChen Binhua, spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), said on Thursday that Lai’s speech “once again peddled the fallacy of ‘Taiwan independence’, incited cross-strait confrontation and reiterated the old tune of ‘democracy versus authoritarianism’”.
Beijing’s response came shortly after Lai said in the speech broadcast live from his office in Taipei on Thursday that Taiwan was determined to boost its defences. The address came just two days after the People’s Liberation Army finished a major military drill around the island.
Chen said the speech once again exposed Lai’s “unwavering” pro-independence stance and “stubborn confrontational mindset”.
“[This] fully confirms him as an out-and-out ‘peace destroyer’, ‘crisis creator’ and ‘war instigator’,” Chen said, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Chen accused Lai of “constantly fabricating separatist fallacies, deliberately escalating cross-strait confrontation, and exacerbating tensions in the Taiwan Strait” since taking office.
ReplyDelete“The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is unstoppable, and the complete reunification of the motherland will surely be achieved,” he said, adding that Beijing hoped compatriots in Taiwan would “firmly stand on the right side of history” and resolutely oppose separatism and external interference.
Le président taïwanais Lai Ching-te a réaffirmé jeudi son engagement à défendre "la souveraineté de l'île" au lendemain de nouveaux exercices militaires chinois autour de Taïwan, qui ont mobilisé des dizaines d'avions et de navires de guerre. Un discours qualifié de mensonger et de malveillant par la Chine.
ReplyDeleteLa Chine, qui considère que Taïwan fait partie de son territoire, a affirmé mercredi avoir achevé "avec succès" ses vastes manœuvres militaires entamées lundi autour de l'île, qui comprenaient des tirs réels et ont mobilisé des dizaines d'avions et de navires de guerre.
ReplyDelete"La réunification de notre patrie ne pourra pas être empêchée", a affirmé le président chinois, Xi Jinping, dans son message du Nouvel An.