The president of Taiwan promised that the country “will not act recklessly.”
Taipei, Taiwan:
The Taiwanese leader on Saturday called on her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to defuse military tensions and to keep her pledge “never to seek hegemony” after months of Beijing’s multiplication of fighter jet incursions.
In a speech on Taiwan’s National Day, President Tsai Ing-wen said the international community was beginning to worry about China’s “growing hegemony”.
Beijing regards democratic and autonomous Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it back to the agenda.
But Tsai referred to a recent speech by Xi at the United Nations which she said gave Taiwanese some hope.
“I am also aware that the leader across the strait (Xi) publicly stated in a video message to the United Nations General Assembly that China would never seek hegemony, expansion or a sphere of influence. ‘influence … we hope this is the start of real change. ”
“We are determined to maintain cross-strait stability, but this is not something Taiwan can take on alone – it is the joint responsibility of both sides,” she added.
Beijing’s belligerent stance towards Taiwan increased dramatically under Xi, who described the island’s unification with the mainland as “inevitable.”
It is also a response to Tsai’s election in 2016 and again earlier this year. Tsai, from the pro-independence Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), sees Taiwan as a sovereign country and rejects the idea that the island is part of a “one China”.
The Beijing Office of Taiwanese Affairs (TAO) accused Tsai of “developing confrontational thinking and antagonism to promote independence” in its speech, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
“We urge the DPP authorities to stop all provocative talk and action in favor of independence and not to go further down the wrong path,” TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian said as quoted by Xinhua.
The DPP would “swallow only its own evil fruits to get along with Western countries,” Zhu warned.
Washington’s heightened awareness in Taipei under President Donald Trump has become another flashpoint with Beijing as US-China relations plunge to historic lows.
The Chinese military has exerted even more pressure than usual this year, sending its fighter jets into the Taiwan air defense zone with unprecedented frequency and sometimes also crossing the so-called “middle line” of the Strait. Taiwan.
He conducted exercises near the Taiwan Strait when a senior US diplomat was visiting the island last month, shortly after health chief Alex Azar made the high-level US visit to Taipei since. 1979 when Washington transferred diplomatic recognition to Beijing.
An official from the Chinese Foreign Ministry even said that there was no middle line “Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory”, triggering the condemnations of Taipei.
Chinese jets entered Taiwan’s air defense zone for the eighth time this month and for the fifth day in a row this week on Saturday, according to the Taipei Defense Ministry.
Tsai vowed that Taiwan “will not act recklessly” and work to reduce the risk of military conflict.
“As long as the Beijing authorities are willing to resolve the antagonisms and improve the relations between the straits … we are willing to work together to facilitate a constructive dialogue,” she said.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
