Taiwan must protect its sovereignty and know its own culture and history, President Lai Chin-te (William Lai) said today, rejecting the “false belief“ that the island could serve as a base for a “takeover” of China, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
Lai, who took office in May, and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have championed Taiwan's separate identity from China, a position that has often angered Beijing, which views the island as an inalienable part of Chinese territory.
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In a speech at the DPP annual conference, the president emphasized that the people who fought to bring democracy to Taiwan, before the fall of martial law in 1987, had a clear idea of the island's place in the world.
They “did not hesitate to shed their blood and risk their lives to debunk the erroneous belief that “Taiwan is a base to take over the mainland (of China)” and launched the national policy of putting Taiwan first,” said Lai, who is also chairman of the DPP.
„Now our responsibility is to unite the people, oppose annexation (by China) and protect national sovereignty,” Lee said.
He delivered his speech in Taiwanese (note: Reuters: Hokkien), not the government's main Mandarin, notes Reuters.
„We must do our best to allow people all over Taiwan to understand their history and culture and to create a national identity with which the 23 million people living in Taiwan can be a community by fate“, he added.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office has not yet commented on the statement, but Beijing calls Lai a “separatist”.
Taiwan's president rejects China's claims to sovereignty, saying only the people of Taiwan can decide their future. He has repeatedly proposed negotiations with Beijing, but has been refused.