Taiwan will not bow to pressure from China and will defend its democratic way of life, President Tsai Ing-wen has said in a defiant speech amid heightened tensions over the island.
Her remarks on Taiwan’s National Day came after China’s President Xi Jinping vowed to “fulfil reunification”.
China denounced Ms Tsai’s speech, saying it “incited confrontation”.
Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state, while China views it as a breakaway province.
Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve unification.
China has sent a record number of military jets into Taiwan’s air defence zone in recent days. Three Chinese planes, including two fighter jets, crossed into the zone on Sunday, Taiwan’s defence ministry said.
Ms Tsai was re-elected by a landslide last year on a promise to stand up to Beijing.
In her speech on Sunday, she said Taiwan was “standing on democracy’s first line of defence”.
She said the island would not “act rashly” but would bolster its defences to “ensure that nobody can force Taiwan to take the path China has laid out for us”.
That path, she said, offered “neither a free and democratic way of life for Taiwan nor sovereignty” for its 23 million people.
“The more we achieve, the greater the pressure we face from China,” she said.
She added that China’s military flights into Taiwan’s air defence zone had seriously affected national security and aviation safety, and described the situation as being “more complex and fluid than at any other point in the past 72 years”.
Ms Tsai also repeated an offer to talk with Chinese leaders on an equal footing, a suggestion Beijing – which brands her a “separatist” – has so far rejected.
Her speech was followed by a fly past of Taiwanese fighter jets.
One man watching Ms Tsai’s speech told AFP news agency Taiwanese people could not accept unification with China.
“China is presently rather authoritarian. Especially under Xi Jinping, it’s gotten worse. Reunification is not appropriate now,” another said.
On Saturday, China’s President Xi said unification should be achieved peacefully, but warned that the Chinese people had a “glorious tradition” of opposing separatism.
“The historical task of the complete reunification of the motherland… will definitely be fulfilled,” he added. -AFP
