Taiwan will not be stopped from engaging with the world and will not give in to pressure, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Friday (Apr 7) as she arrived back from a trip to Central America and the United States, where she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, reacted with anger to the McCarthy meeting, though so far, Beijing has held off ratcheting up military tensions to show its displeasure.
Speaking after stepping off her flight, Tsai said her enthusiastic welcome overseas was a powerful message.
“We showed the international community that in the face of pressure and threats, Taiwan will be even more united and will absolutely not yield to suppression, nor due to obstructions stop exchanges with the world,” she said at Taiwan’s main international airport at Taoyuan, outside of Taipei.
China staged war games around Taiwan last August following a visit to Taipei by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
While Taiwan has reported a Chinese aircraft carrier group far off its eastern coast, it has not reported any other unusual military movements. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, in a statement released shortly after Tsai’s flight, landed, reiterated its opposition to her US trip, technically billed as a “transit” though, in reality, it was where her most important meetings took place.
“The so-called ‘transit’ is just an excuse, but it is actually a provocation, relying on the United States to seek independence,” it said.
However, the statement did not announce any specific retaliatory steps.
But underscoring the sensitivity of Tsai’s return, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry denied, around 30 minutes before touchdown, a Taiwanese media report that her flight had been subjected to “unknown interference”, saying this was not true.
It did say, though, that a special military task force was deployed to “control the whole process”, using naval and air forces to stand guard.
Tsai travelled on an A350 plane specially chartered from Taiwan’s China Airlines.
Source: Reuters
