Taipei: Taiwan President Tsai Ing-Wen warns “disaster consequences” if the island falls into China and vows to “do whatever is needed” to guard against threats in an article published on Tuesday.
Taiwan lives under the threat of a constant invasion by China, which looks at the island of democracy that is ruled itself as its territory to retrieve one day, forcefully if necessary.
President XI Jinping has described the confiscation of Taiwan as “unavoidable” and Beijing has increased military, diplomatic and economic pressure since the 2016 TSAI election, when he looked at the island as “already independent” and not part of “one Chinese”.
Nearly 150 Chinese fighter planes have violated Adiz Taiwan since Friday when Beijing marked his national day with the largest aerial show, buzzing the island with 38 aircraft.
TSAI warned the failure to defend Taiwan will be a “disaster” for the island and a wider area in an article he wrote for foreign affairs on Tuesday.
“They must remember that if Taiwan falls, the consequences will be a disaster for regional peace and a democratic alliance system,” Tsai said.
“This will indicate that in the current global value contest, authoritarianism has a democratic advantage.” Taiwan hopes for peaceful coexistence with China, he said, but “if democracy and the way their life is threatened, Taiwan will do anything to defend themselves.” The TSAI government on Monday urged Beijing to stop “irresponsible provocative actions” after a record of 56 Chinese jets including nuclear bombers across the Taiwan air defense identification zone.
“In the midst of intrusion almost every day by people’s liberation forces, our position on the cross-strait relationship remains constant: Taiwan will not bend pressure,” Tsai added.
Adiz is not the same as the territorial territory of Taiwan but includes a much wider area that overlaps with the part of the Chinese air defense identification zone and even includes several mainland.
In the past two years, Beijing has begun sending a large sort to the Taiwanese defense zone to signify dissatisfaction during the main times – and to maintain Taipei’s aging fighter fleet regularly emphasized.
Last year, a record of 380 Chinese military jets made a series of Taiwan’s defense zone.
The number in October this year has exceeded 600.