Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen visits military base after PLA ‘provocations’

Name: Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen visits military base following PLA ‘provocations’
Uploaded: 2020-09-22T07:14:50.000Z
Duration: 56 s
Description: Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen visits military base following PLA ‘provocations’

Taiwan has the ‘ability’ and ‘resolve’ to safeguard its territory, she tells about a hundred pilots and crew members

It follows last week’s show of force by Beijing during a trip to the island by a high-level US envoy

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President Tsai Ing-wen speaks to air force personnel at a base on one of Taiwan’s outlying islands on Tuesday. Photo: CNA

Associated Press

Published: 3:14pm, 22 Sep 2020Updated: 5:41am, 23 Sep 2020

President Tsai Ing-wen visited a military base on one of Taiwan’s outlying islands on Tuesday in a display of resolve following a recent show of force by Beijing.

Tsai spoke to about a hundred pilots and crew members at the Penghu Magong Air Force Base, where two pilots took off in Taiwan-produced Ching-kuo Indigenous Defence Fighters to greet her arrival.

Taiwan had the “ability” and “resolve” to safeguard its territory, she said.

“I know that having to face the provocations of the People’s Liberation Army surrounding Taiwan, and their actions in disturbing the area’s peace, in the situation, everyone’s duty at the frontline air defence at Penghu has become heavier,” Tsai said.

“But I have faith in every individual, that every one of our well-trained air force brothers and sisters is able to lift this heavy responsibility,” she said.

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Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen visits military base following PLA ‘provocations’

The Chinese air force flew 37 planes, including fighter jets and long-distance bombers, over the Taiwan Strait on Friday and Saturday in what Beijing called a deliberate warning during a visit to the island by a high-level US State Department envoy.