We Won't Back Down Despite China's Invasion Threats: Tsai Ing-wen

Taiwan won’t back down in the face of “aggressive threats” from China, the president of the self-governing island democracy said Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022, comparing growing pressure from Beijing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Photo Insert: Tsai said democracies and liberal societies are facing the greatest challenges since the Cold War.

Tsai Ing-wen made the comment following a twice-a-decade congress of China’s Communist Party at which it upped its longstanding threat to annex the island it considers its own territory by force if necessary.

The party added a line to its constitution on “resolutely opposing and deterring” Taiwan’s independence and “resolutely implementing the policy of ‘one country, two systems,’” the formula by which it plans to govern the island in the future.

The blueprint has already been put in place in the former British colony of Hong Kong, which has seen its democratic system, civil liberties, and judicial independence decimated in recent years.

Speaking to an international gathering of pro-democracy activists in Taipei, Tsai said democracies and liberal societies are facing the greatest challenges since the Cold War.

“Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is a prime example. It shows an authoritarian regime will do whatever it takes to achieve expansionism,” Tsai said.

“The people of Taiwan are all too familiar with such aggression. In recent years, Taiwan has been confronted by increasingly aggressive threats from China,” she said, listing military intimidation, cyberattacks, and economic coercion.

The rising Chinese pressure has spurred calls in Taiwan for additional defense spending and a lengthening of the term of national service required of all Taiwanese men.

“However, even under constant threats, the people of Taiwan have never shied away from the challenges” and have worked against authoritarian forces looking to undermine their democratic way of life, Tsai said.

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