By HUIZHONG WU
Associated Press
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — As Taiwan’s president met more foreign tourists on Aug. 23, he cited the 1958 armed conflict as an example of the island’s determination to defend itself.
U.S. policy researchers and Japanese lawmakers are the latest delegation to visit, just weeks after China responded to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan with massive military exercises, including over the island Launch missiles and send ships across the centerline of the Taiwan Strait. .
China claims that self-governing Taiwan is its own territory that can be occupied by force if necessary, and believes that high-level foreign visits to Taiwan are interference in its affairs, and in fact recognizes Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Speaking with policy researchers at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution think tank, President Tsai Ing-wen referred to the second Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1958, in which the Chinese military conducted a prolonged campaign against the islands of Kinmen and Matsu on the outskirts of Taiwan. shelling.
Tsai Ing-wen said that at that time, the army and the people were united to defend Taiwan.
“The battle to defend the motherland showed the world that no threat can shake the Taiwanese people’s determination to defend their country, not in the past, not now, and not in the future,” she said. “We will also show the world that the people of Taiwan are determined. and confidence to maintain peace, security, freedom and prosperity for themselves.”
Tsai Ing-wen later told Japanese lawmakers that aggression against Taiwan would have major implications for the entire Indo-Pacific region.
Leading the Japanese delegation was Keiji Furuya, an ultra-conservative who leads a group of Japanese-Taiwanese parliamentarians.
In his speech before the meeting with Tsai Ing-wen, Furuya criticized China’s military exercises over the past few weeks.
“China’s behavior is unacceptable to the people of Japan and Taiwan who share common values in democracy and freedom, the rule of law and human rights. We oppose this threat from China,” he said.
Furuya also said, “The most important thing is that Taiwan should work closely with the international community centered on Japan and the United States to completely suppress China’s attempts to change the status quo.”
On August 22, Tsai Ing-wen met with the governor of Indiana, who came to discuss business and academic cooperation with Taiwanese institutions on semiconductors, Taiwan’s globally dominant industry.
A delegation of former Japanese defense officials and a U.S. congressional delegation following Pelosi also recently visited Taiwan.
