President Tsai Ing-wen pledged Sunday to defend Taiwan, one day after Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed Beijing's confidence in reunifying the self-ruled island with the mainland.
But amid increasing military pressure on the island Beijing considers part of China, Tsai, in a National Day speech, also called for the two sides to engage in "dialogue on the basis of parity" in order to resolve "cross-strait differences."
Calling attention to the "expansion of authoritarianism" as the world's political landscape undergoes drastic change, the Taiwanese president said the island stands on "democracy's first line of defense" and finds itself "in a situation that is more complex and fluid than at any other point" in over 70 years.
"We will continue to bolster our national defense and demonstrate our determination to defend ourselves in order to ensure that nobody can force Taiwan to take the path China has laid out for us," Tsai said.
"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."
Tsai said there should be "absolutely no illusions that the Taiwanese people will bow to pressure."
But the president stressed at the same time that Taiwan's position on cross-strait relations remains the same, saying, "We call for maintaining the status quo, and we will do our utmost to prevent the status quo from being unilaterally altered."
"I also want to emphasize that resolving cross-strait differences requires the two sides of the strait to engage in dialogue on the basis of parity," she said.
China has sent warplanes into Taiwan's air defense identification zone over 600 times this year alone, according to Taiwan's defense authorities. The escalated military pressure has sparked concerns within the island.
Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told Taiwan's legislature on Wednesday that military tensions with China are at their worst in over 40 years and that in 2025, China would be fully capable of mounting an invasion of Taiwan.
Elsewhere in Sunday's speech, Tsai expressed gratitude to Western countries and Japan for donating coronavirus vaccines to Taiwan, and noted that a global shortage of semiconductors during the pandemic highlighted Taiwan's place in supply chains as the main production base.
At a time when Taiwan is moving to forge closer ties with the United States, Japan and other countries, it finds "more and more democratic friends willing to stand up for us," the president said.
The speech was delivered at a ceremony commemorating the National Day for the Republic of China, Taiwan's formal name. Medical personnel involved in the pandemic response as well as athletes who took part in the Tokyo Olympics also attended the event outside the presidential office in Taipei.
Weaponry including indigenously developed missiles to counter a possible Chinese invasion was also put on display.
China and Taiwan have been governed separately since they split in 1949 as a result of a civil war. The mainland considers the island as a renegade province.
In Taiwan, Oct. 10 is the anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China, which was established in 1912 on the mainland.
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