TAIPEI (Dispatches) -- War between Taiwan and China is “absolutely not an option”, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Monday, as she reiterated her willingness to talk to Beijing and also pledged to boost the island’s defenses including with precision missiles.
China again rejected her latest overture, saying the island was an inseparable part of its territory.
Taiwan, which China claims as its own, has come under increasing military and political pressure from Beijing, especially after Chinese war games in early August following a Taipei visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Any conflict over Taiwan could drag in the United States, Japan and perhaps much of the world, as well as shatter the global economy, especially given Taiwan’s dominant position as a maker of semiconductors used in everything from smartphones and tablets to fighter jets.
Tsai, in her national day speech outside the presidential office under a grey sky, said, “I want to make clear to the Beijing authorities that armed confrontation is absolutely not an option for our two sides.”
Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Taiwan is part of China, “has no president and is not an independent country”.
“The root cause of the current tensions in the Taiwan Strait lies in the Democratic Progressive Party authorities’ stubborn insistence on Taiwan independence and secession,” she said, referring to Taiwan’s ruling party. “We are willing to create a broad space for peaceful reunification, but we will never leave any space for Taiwan independence and secession activities.”
China calls Tsai - re-elected by a landslide in 2020 on a promise to stand up to Beijing - a separatist and refuses to speak to her.
Tsai’s speech comes less than a week before China’s ruling Communist Party’s congress opens in Beijing, where President Xi Jinping is widely expected to win a precedent-breaking third five-year term.
Taiwan is increasing mass production of precision missiles and high-performance naval vessels, and working to acquire small, highly mobile weapons that will ensure Taiwan is fully prepared to respond to “external military threats”, Tsai said.