JUGGLING GLOBAL GIANTS: At a National Security Council meeting, the president pushed the idea of a trade agreement with the US and stabilizing cross-strait relations

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 01, 2020
By: Lee Hsin-fang / Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday instructed the government to bolster self-defense capabilities, improve relations with the US across party lines, and stabilize economic and social order.

The directives were issued at a National Security Council meeting, which was held earlier yesterday amid an increasing number of incursions by Chinese military planes and ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election.

In anticipation of the Chinese Communist Party’s fifth plenum this week and the US presidential election, Tsai last month had also instructed the council to form a task force to increase intelligence gathering on possible scenarios, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday afternoon.

During the meeting, Tsai said the nation should further modernize its defense capabilities, upgrade its asymmetric combat capabilities, promote indigenous arms development and reform its reserve forces to brace for Beijing’s military expansion and aggression, Chang quoted Tsai as saying.   [FULL  STORY]