TAIPEI, Taiwan—Taiwan’s freedom and way of life are being threatened by authoritarianism, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said, adding that he is committed to defending the island’s sovereignty from annexation or infringement.
Lai, who took office in May, delivered a keynote national address in front of the presidential office in Taipei on Oct. 10, which is celebrated as National Day in Taiwan. This year, the celebration also marks Taiwan’s 113th birthday.
Lai reiterated Taiwan’s position of maintaining the current status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, while seeking to hold equal and dignified talks with China.
“As president, my mission is to ensure that our nation endures and progresses,” Lai added. “I will also uphold the commitment to resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty.”
China’s hostility against Taiwan and its liberal democratic system has grown since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power in 2016, when Lai’s predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, began the first of her two terms in office. Lai, who is currently the DPP chairman, was vice president during the Tsai administration. The Chinese communist regime considers both Tsai and Lai as “separatists,” a phrase Beijing frequently uses for any Taiwanese who advocates for the island’s sovereignty.
Lai said his administration would like to work with China on issues such as climate change, combating infectious diseases, and maintaining regional security.
He urged China to “live up to the expectations of the international community” and apply its influence to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflicts in the Middle East.
“Taiwan faces relentless challenges, and the world’s challenges are just as much our own,” Lai said. “And expanding authoritarianism is posing a host of challenges to the rules-based international order, threatening our hard-won free and democratic way of life.”
His administration will focus on developing five “trusted industry sectors,” namely semiconductors, artificial intelligence, military, security and surveillance, and next-generation communications, Lai said.
‘Calm and Rational’
The Chinese military has ramped up its activities around Taiwan in recent years, including air sorties, naval deployment, and live-fire exercises. Just days after Lai’s inauguration in May, China launched what it called “punishment” military drills encircling the island.Before Lai delivered his speech on Thursday, Taiwanese and Western officials warned China could stage more military drills in response to his address.
The poll found that 61 percent of people think it was “unlikely or very unlikely” that China would launch an attack on Taiwan in the next five-year period. The poll surveyed around 1,200 people in September.
“Most people do not think China’s territorial ambitions will manifest themselves in the form of attacking Taiwan,” said Christina Chen, an INDSR researcher. “Most people see China’s territorial ambitions as a serious threat.”
Chen added that Taiwanese people are also concerned about other Chinese threats, such as military drills and propaganda campaigns.
“That means Taiwanese people are aware of the threat but remain calm and rational with the expectations of an imminent war,” the INDSR said.
More than 67 percent of those polled said they would fight back if China attacked, but respondents were almost equally divided on whether Taiwan’s military was capable of defending the island.
The survey also found a split in opinion on whether the United States would help defend Taiwan: 74 percent believed the U.S. government was likely to “indirectly” help Taiwan by providing food, medical supplies, and weapons, while 52 percent believed the U.S. military would send its armed forces to intervene.
‘Isolate the Island’
Assistant Professor Amrita Jash, from the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations at India’s Manipal Academy of Higher Education, recently wrote an analysis of China’s military exercises around Taiwan from 2018 to 2024. His analysis was published by Washington-based Global Taiwan Institute on Oct. 2.Jash noticed that the Chinese exercises have been more sophisticated, with the increasing use of advanced technologies such as drones.
“China’s military drills exhibit a clear trend of being ‘frequent, intense, large-scale and multi-domain’ in nature—with a twin objective of demonstrating China’s ability to blockade and isolate the island, and expressing Beijing’s displeasure with any perceived moves towards Taiwan’s independence,” he wrote.
China’s blockade “would likely halt shipments of the advanced microchips the Chinese economy needs to keep technological pace with the U.S., not to mention undercutting the economic integration it seeks with the island,” according to the article.
“If China blocks exports from an island that accounts for about 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductor capacity, the U.S. could probably draw wide support for retaliatory measures of its own, possibly even squeezing China at various maritime chokepoints.”
In the event of a Taiwan invasion, China would lose foreign capital, critical technology, and tax revenue, dealing a significant blow to its economy, the article added.
