Talking with CNN in an unique interview Tuesday, President Tsai Ing-wen stated Taiwan, which is positioned fewer than 200 kilometers (124 miles) away from China’s southeastern coast, was a “beacon” of democracy that wanted to be defended to uphold religion worldwide in democratic values.
“Right here is that this island of 23 million individuals attempting onerous every single day to guard ourselves and defend our democracy and ensuring that our individuals have the form of freedom they deserve,” she stated.
“If we fail, then which means those that imagine in these values would doubt whether or not these are values that they (ought to) be combating for.”
Taiwan and mainland China have been individually ruled for the reason that Nationalists retreated to Taiwan on the finish of the Chinese language civil warfare greater than 70 years in the past. Taiwan is now a flourishing democracy however the mainland’s ruling Chinese language Communist Get together (CCP) continues to view the island as an inseparable a part of its territory — regardless of having by no means managed it.
The shows of drive are partly the results of strengthening ties between Taiwan and the USA below Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Massive arms gross sales and excessive profile visits by US officers have bolstered Taiwan’s worldwide standing and antagonized Beijing.
Tsai would not say precisely what number of US navy personnel are on the island at current however stated it was “not as many as individuals thought.” “We now have a variety of cooperation with the US aiming at rising our protection functionality,” she stated.
Rising China-Taiwan tensions
A former commerce negotiator and legislation professor, Tsai grew to become Taiwan’s first feminine president in 2016, a historic win, which got here after giant scholar protests on the island in opposition to her Nationalist predecessor’s transfer to type nearer ties with mainland China.
When Tsai took CNN for a stroll round Taipei earlier this week, tons of of native residents waved and referred to as out to her, thanking her for her onerous work and asking to pose for selfies.
However Tsai’s presidency has been relentlessly attacked and ridiculed from throughout the Taiwan Strait — since Tsai took workplace, relations between Beijing and Taipei have quick deteriorated.
The Chinese language authorities believes Tsai and her occasion, the Democratic Folks’s Get together, are in favor of formal Taiwan independence, regardless of her public statements favoring the established order — an association by which Taiwan stays self-ruled, with out an official declaration.
Financial and diplomatic ties with China, developed over earlier governments, have frayed, and the Chinese language navy has ramped up its strain on the island.
It was a rigorously executed present of drive by the Chinese language authorities — straying into areas the place it could provoke a response from Taiwan however not getting into the island’s airspace.
A spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Workplace confirmed Wednesday that Beijing reserved the fitting to make use of drive to pursue “reunification.”
Taiwan President open to China talks
Though a self-confessed introvert, Tsai is a passionate defender of her island and a fierce advocate for her individuals.
“There needs to be completely no illusions that the Taiwanese individuals will bow to strain,” she stated.
Talking to CNN Tuesday, Tsai referred to as on regional democratic companions, together with Japan, South Korea and Australia, to assist assist the island.
“When authoritarian regimes exhibit expansionist tendencies, democratic nations ought to come collectively to face in opposition to them. Taiwan is on the entrance traces,” she stated.
Tsai was re-elected in 2020 with a bigger share of the vote and as a part of her second time period, she advised CNN she wished to quickly modernize Taiwan’s navy.
Tsai advised CNN the federal government wanted to raised tailor its navy to defend a small island, somewhat than a traditional combating drive.
“We now have a system that’s inherited from China, which is a really totally different nation … The best way you defend a giant piece of land is totally different from the way in which you defend a small island, so now we have to alter the normal fascinated with how a navy needs to be structured,” she stated.
Nonetheless, Tsai added that she was not abandoning the opportunity of improved relations with Beijing, saying she would sit down with Chinese language chief Xi for talks — if he was keen.
“I (would) encourage him to have extra dialogue with the federal government and other people right here in Taiwan, and to get a greater really feel of what it is like in Taiwan … And, in fact, we’d do extra by way of understanding the scenario in China,” she stated.
“We now have stated repeatedly that we need to have dialogue with China and that is one of the simplest ways to keep away from misunderstanding, miscalculation and misjudgment within the administration of the cross-strait relations,” she added.
Tsai: US would come to our protection
There aren’t any treaties between the US and its regional companions that may assure help to Taiwan within the occasion of an assault. However as tensions have risen between Taipei and Beijing, some nations have expressed assist for the island.
In a city corridor hosted by CNN on Thursday, US President Biden was agency on the query of whether or not the US would defend Taiwan within the occasion of a Chinese language invasion.
“Sure, now we have a dedication to try this,” he stated. The White Home subsequently performed down his feedback and, talking to CNN, Tsai stated individuals have “totally different interpretations” of what the US President meant.
Nonetheless, Tsai stated she believed if Taiwan got here below assault from mainland China, the US and different regional democracies would come to its assist, “given the long-term relationship now we have with the US.”
“Taiwan isn’t alone as a result of we’re a democracy, we respect freedom and we’re peace lovers. And we share values with a lot of the nations within the area and geographically we’re of strategic significance,” she stated, pointing to the island’s main position within the world semiconductor provide chain and including regional powers had a “widespread curiosity” in preserving the island secure.
When requested if Taiwan might defend itself with out navy help, Tsai stated the island would defend itself “so long as we will…However let me reiterate, it is essential that now we have the assist of our buddies, and in addition like-minded nations,” she stated.
Defending Taiwan does not simply contain navy would possibly. As a part of the rising US assist for Taiwan, Washington has began pushing for higher participation by Taipei in worldwide governing our bodies, particularly the United Nations.
Tsai stated it has lengthy been the coverage of all sides of Taiwan’s politics for the island to take a higher position on the UN. She stated she wasn’t involved about aggravating Beijing.
“We now have expressed our hope that we need to be a part of the UN system. And China has their story to inform. And it is for the worldwide group to guage,” she stated.
Tsai: Xi’s China ‘extra bold’
Tsai’s time in workplace has coincided with the rise of a extra assertive Beijing, with Xi now thought-about probably the most highly effective Chinese language chief in many years.
Tsai stated she acknowledges the menace from the island’s more and more highly effective neighbor. “(They’re) extra bold, extra expansionist. And due to this fact issues that have been acceptable to them, might not be acceptable to them now,” she stated.
Nonetheless, Tsai stated she believed the 2 governments might nonetheless dwell collectively in peace regardless of the variations of their political techniques.
“If we will sit down and speak about our variations and attempt to make preparations so we will coexist peacefully? I feel that’s the expectation of our individuals right here, and the individuals in China, in addition to the individuals within the area,” she stated.
Tsai stated the time was approaching for the Chinese language Communist Get together to determine what kind of relationship it wished to have with the area and with the remainder of the world.
“Does Xi need to have a peaceable relationship with everyone within the area or on this planet, or does he need to be a in a dominant place so that everyone listens to him, listens to China?” she stated.
Tsai hasn’t given up hope for democracy in China although, regardless of strikes in direction of higher authoritarian management below Xi.
“Democracy typically is chaotic. It is messy, confrontational, however on the finish, you discover one of the simplest ways to manipulate, one of the simplest ways to determine a social order so that folks can dwell collectively peacefully,” she stated.
By legislation, Tsai can solely serve two phrases however, with simply two-and-a-half years left in workplace earlier than she steps down in January 2024, she nonetheless has quite a bit to get carried out.
Her priorities embody connecting Taiwan to the world and shoring up its group in opposition to makes an attempt by different governments to divide it.
Tsai stated she hopes that she is remembered as a pacesetter who left her individuals extra “united.”
“I hope they’ll keep in mind me as somebody who made the utmost effort to guard this place, to make this place safer and extra resilient,” she stated.
