President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that aggression would inevitably fail, pointing — on the day before a mass military parade in Beijing — to the lessons from World War II and key victories Taiwan claims against Chinese forces in 1958.
Taiwan has over the past five years repeatedly complained about heightened Chinese military activity including war games around the nation as Beijing steps up pressure to enforce territorial claims that Taipei rejects.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, are to oversee a military parade in Beijing today to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA
Speaking to a gathering of military personnel, including several high-ranking officers, at the Ministry of National Defense, Lai said that yesterday marked the 67th anniversary of a 1958 naval battle Taiwan celebrates as a victory that was part of the Aug. 23 Chinese attack on Kinmen, better known internationally as the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.
Taiwan’s victories then show that true peace stems from a resolve to unite against aggression, he said.
“We all know that the current security environment is more severe than ever before. In recent years, the Chinese communists have persistently conducted high-intensity activities with military aircraft and vessels around the Taiwan Strait,” Lai said.
China’s actions are “not only a threat to Taiwan’s democracy and freedom, but also a challenge to the democratic world,” he said. “From the victory in World War II to the glorious achievements of the September 2nd naval battle and the August 23rd artillery exchange, the most valuable lesson remains: Unity ensures victory, while aggression inevitably fails.”
Lai highlighted the importance of social solidarity and preparedness, both in military and societal terms, adding that only by cultivating these qualities can “we truly safeguard our nation’s sovereignty and democracy.”
He outlined his administration’s measures over the past year to improve the salaries and benefits of military personnel, while boosting defense spending and investments, as part of broader efforts to strengthen military capabilities.
He also thanked military officers, particularly those tasked with guarding Taiwan amid Chinese incursions and sorties near the nation’s airspace and territorial waters, for “shouldering the responsibility of defending the survival and development of the Republic of China (Taiwan).”
Taiwan and China have both been engaged in an increasingly tense exchange of accusations about the World War II anniversary and its broader historical meaning.
Taiwan has told its people not to attend Beijing’s parade, to China’s anger.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Republic of China government it ran fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party of leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東).
The two had an uneasy alliance against Japan in World War II and the Japanese invasion of China that preceded that, although much of the fighting was done by the KMT, historians generally agree.
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