Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen marked the new year with a message for China: military conflict is not the answer.
“We must remind the authorities in Beijing not to misjudge the situation and avoid internal expansion with a ‘military adventurism’”, he said on Saturday (1), in his New Year’s speech broadcast live on Facebook.
China claims it has democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has increased military and diplomatic pressure over the past two years to enforce its sovereignty claims.
In Chinese President Xi Jinping’s New Year’s speech a day earlier, he said that the complete unification of the “mother country” was an aspiration shared by people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.
Taiwan, on the other hand, claims to be an independent country and has repeatedly pledged to defend its freedom and democracy. “The military is definitely not an option for resolving cross-strait disagreements. Military conflicts would affect economic stability,” said Tsai.
“Our two sides jointly assume responsibility for maintaining regional peace and stability. Taiwan’s posture has always been one of not succumbing to pressure,” added the president.
To alleviate tension in the region, both Taipei and Beijing must “work hard to care for people’s livelihoods and calm their hearts” in order to jointly find peaceful solutions to the existing problems, according to Tsai.
She also said Taiwan will continue to monitor the situation in Hong Kong, adding that interference in recent legislative elections and this week’s arrests of employees at the media outlet Stand News “has made people even more concerned about human rights and the freedom of expression”.
“Stable governance is Taiwan’s most important goal in 2022. We will maintain our sovereignty, defend the values of freedom and democracy, territorial sovereignty, national security and maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.” the president.
Reference: CNN Brasil
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