On October 10, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te delivered a National Day address before thousands of people, including foreign diplomats, outside the Presidential Office in Taipei.
"We are open to exchanges, but we will not accept subjugation," Lai said. "Our purpose in increasing investment in defense is not to provoke, but to prevent war."
Before the speech, fighter jets and two Chinook helicopters carrying a giant Taiwan flag flew over the capital. The holiday marks 115 years since the 1911 uprising that toppled China's last imperial dynasty and led to the founding of the Republic of China.
Pressure From China
Taiwan's 23 million people live under the constant threat of an attack from China, which claims the island as part of its territory, has never renounced the use of force to take it back and calls Lai a "separatist." Beijing has rejected his offers of dialogue.
Lai said China continues to "exert pressure through military and gray-zone activities aimed at changing the status quo in the Taiwan Strait." Gray-zone tactics are actions that fall short of open war.
"Peace cannot rest on wishful thinking alone, and tolerance cannot become an excuse for aggressors to encroach further," he added.
Lai's administration has allocated a record NT$1.1 trillion (US$34.5 billion) for defense in 2027, equivalent to more than 3 percent of gross domestic product.
China held military drills around the island immediately after Lai's first National Day speech in 2024, but did not repeat them last year. China's most recent exercises near Taiwan took place in late December, after news of an US$11 billion arms deal with Washington, the largest U.S. weapons package ever for the island.
Lai said he welcomes dialogue between the United States and China, but stressed that "the right of the people of Taiwan to exist must be respected." He called on democracies in the Indo-Pacific to join forces to protect regional peace and stability.
The United States shifted formal diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing nearly 50 years ago, but remains Taiwan's most important security backer. Officials in Washington and Taipei have repeatedly said U.S. policy toward Taiwan is unchanged under President Donald Trump.
In May, after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Trump suggested that arms sales to Taiwan could be a bargaining chip with China, sparking concern worldwide.
Taiwan is now waiting for Trump to approve a US$14 billion arms package, including U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems. The dispute stems from the Chinese civil war, when Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after defeat by Mao Zedong's communists. The Republic of China remains the island's official name.
