Taiwan will keep bolstering its defences to ensure nobody can force the island to accept the path China has laid down that offers neither freedom nor democracy, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Sunday, in a strong riposte to Beijing.
Claimed by China as its own territory, Taiwan has come under growing military and political pressure to accept Beijing's rule, including repeated Chinese air force missions in Taiwan's air defence identification zone, to international concern." with Taiwan and did not directly mention the use of force. Still, he got an angry reaction from Taipei, which said only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
"But there should be absolutely no illusions that the Taiwanese people will bow to pressure," she said in the speech outside the presidential office in central Taipei. "This is because the path that China has laid out offers neither a free and democratic way of life for Taiwan, nor sovereignty for our 23 million people."
Taiwan's goodwill will not change, and it will do all it can to prevent the status quo with China from being unilaterally altered, she said.
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