Taiwan has seen off mainland China before and its resolve to defend remains, Tsai Ing-wen says

Name: US-Taiwan trade talks prompt Beijing warning, ‘economic coercion’ on agenda
Uploaded: 2022-08-23T06:52:56.000Z
Duration: 2 min 24 s
Description: US-Taiwan trade talks prompt Beijing warning, ‘economic coercion’ on agenda

Taiwanese president tells delegation from Stanford University’s Hoover Institution island stands on the front line of authoritarian expansionism

‘We too will show the world that the people of Taiwan have both the resolve and confidence to safeguard peace, security, freedom and prosperity’, Tsai says

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen gestures during a meeting with US Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, at the Presidential office in Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, August 22, 2022. Photo: Taiwan Presidential Office via AP

Reuters

Published: 2:52pm, 23 Aug 2022Updated: 6:22pm, 23 Aug 2022

Taiwan saw off mainland China’s military six decades ago when its forces bombarded offshore Taiwanese islands and that resolve to defend the homeland continues to this day, President Tsai Ing-wen told a visiting group of US academics on Tuesday.

Tensions between Taiwan and Beijing have spiked over the past month following the visit to Taipei by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The People’s Liberation Army staged war games near Taiwan to express anger at what it saw as stepped-up US support for the island that Beijing views as sovereign Chinese territory.

02:24

US-Taiwan trade talks prompt Beijing warning, ‘economic coercion’ on agenda

Meeting the delegation from Stanford University’s Hoover Institution at her office, Tsai referenced mainland China’s month of attacks on the Taiwan-controlled islands of Quemoy (also called Kinmen) and Matsu that sit off just off the mainland coast, which started in August 1958.

“Sixty-four years ago during the August 23 battle, our soldiers and civilians operated in solidarity and safeguarded Taiwan, so that we have the democratic Taiwan today,” she said, using the common Taiwanese term for that campaign, which ended in stalemate with mainland China failing to take the islands.

“That battle to protect our homeland showed the world that no threat of any kind could shake the Taiwanese people’s resolve to defend their nation, not in the past, not now and not in the future,” Tsai added.

“We too will show the world that the people of Taiwan have both the resolve and confidence to safeguard peace, security, freedom and prosperity for ourselves.”