Amid rising tensions between Taiwan and China around the South China Sea region, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday (September 08) called for a joint alliance of democratic nations to stand against “aggressive actions” of the PLA.
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Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its own territory, has ramped up military activities around the island nation, in order to force Taiwan to accept its sovereignty.
However, Tsai, while speaking at a forum in Taipei, which was attended by the nation’s top security officials along with senior diplomats from the West urged for a coalition of nations in order to thwart Chinese advances and protect their freedom from “authoritarian aggression”
“The rapid militarization of the South China Sea, increasing and frequent grey-zone tactics in the Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea, coercive diplomacy used against countries and corporations are all destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region,”
It is time for like-minded countries, and democratic friends in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, to discuss a framework to generate sustained and concerted efforts to maintain a strategic order that deters unilateral aggressive actions.” said Tsai.
Under the regime of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing has been upgrading its military capabilities, with the recent example being the naval aviation regiment base under the PLA’ Southern Theater Command.
In order to attain freedom from Chinese advances, Tsai has invited the democratic nations to join hands and work together, stating the need for “a strategic order that encourages cooperation, transparency and problem-solving through dialogue, not threats of war”.
Tsai stressed the need for a strategy that avoided war, yet clearly conveyed the resolve of the nations to protect their democracies. She added – “Divided we fall. Together, we are more than the sum of our parts.”
Despite Beijing’s mounting pressure on Taiwan to be recognized as China’s territory, Taiwan has refused to give in and have instead created stronger bonds with other “like-minded” democracies, which include the US, Australia, Britain, Canada, the European Union, and Japan.
