Taipei – Taiwan president, Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday that her administration would keep resisting Beijing and enhancing national unity to defend the island’s sovereignty with like-minded democracies if she was re-elected in January.
“What China fears most about Taiwan is our national unity, democracy and growth,” Ing-wen said.
Ing-wen is the presidential candidate for the governing centrist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
She said that democracy cannot co-exist with authoritarianism and would never accept the “one country, two systems” principle that Beijing applied in Hong Kong.
“We will never compromise Taiwan’s sovereignty for economic interest or diplomatic space,” she added.
Ing-wen said that upon assumption of duty in May 2016, Beijing had been increasing pressure on the self-governing island.
According to her, if re-elected, she would continue to strengthen national security, adding that Taiwan had faced disinformation campaigns from China.
Ing-wen, 63, is being challenged by Southern Kaohsiung City Mayor Han Kuo-yu, 62, for the right-wing China-friendly Nationalist Party (KMT), and former KMT Secretary-General James Soong, 77, for the conservative People First Party (PFP).
Kuo-yu said Ing-wen’s economic policies had failed to help Taiwan join any regional trading bloc.
Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections are scheduled for Jan. 11.
She enjoyed more than 50 percent approval in local surveys, beating her primary rival Kuo-yu 20/30 per cent.
Taiwan has had its own government since 1949. Beijing considered the self-ruled democracy part of its territory.
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