TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will stress the need for strong defences to preserve peace through strength when he gives his keynote national day speech on Friday, according to an official briefed on the matter.
Democratically-governed Taiwan has faced increased military and political pressure from China, which views the island as its own territory over the strong objections of the government in Taipei.
Lai will talk about increasing defence spending and strengthening social resilience, to protect peace through strength and demonstrate determination to safeguard Taiwan with concrete actions.
That involves building a strong line of defence for freedom and democracy, Lai will say, according to the official.
Lai will also say he will “responsibly maintain the status quo of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”, the official added.
China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, says Lai is a “separatist” and has rebuffed repeated offers of talks from him. Lai says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
Lai, in a speech at a national day concert on Thursday night in the central city of Taichung, said: “We absolutely must not give up our sovereignty.”
China this week accused Lai of “prostituting” himself to foreigners, after he gave an interview lauding U.S. President Donald Trump.
China staged a day of war games around the island last year shortly after Lai’s national day speech in what it said was a warning to “separatist acts”, and Taiwan is tracking Chinese activities for any early warning signs of a repeat of last year’s drills.
China’s foreign ministry told Reuters on Thursday, when asked if there would be war games in response to Lai’s speech, that China would “firmly defend national sovereignty, reunification and territorial integrity”. It did not elaborate.
Five Taipei-based officials – three Taiwanese and two foreign – told Reuters on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter, that China would probably have to factor in broader geopolitical developments when considering whether to hold new war games.
Those factors would include an expected meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a regional summit in South Korea later this month, the officials said.
Taiwan’s national day is held on the anniversary of a 1911 uprising that led to the overthrow of China’s last imperial dynasty and establishment of the Republic of China.
The republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists, and Republic of China remains the island’s formal name.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; editing by Mark Heinrich)
