Bloomberg
Date: October 9, 2018
By: Debby Wu
Taiwan’s president will highlight the threat China poses to Asia and beyond in her national
Tsai Ing-wen
Photographer: Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images
day speech Wednesday, echoing U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s harshly worded criticism of Beijing.
President Tsai Ing-wen will seek to emphasize the destabilizing impact China is having on the world, contrasting Beijing’s behavior with her administration’s efforts to be part of a stable world order, according to a Chinese-language excerpt of her speech provided by her office Tuesday.
“We will not escalate conflicts impulsively and we will not cave in and submit to pressure from China,” Tsai will say, according to the prepared remarks. “Taiwan’s democratic transition provides a ray of light in the dark for all those seeking democracy.”
The speech comes as tensions between Beijing and both Taipei and its main security guarantor, the U.S., reach their highest in years. Tsai’s comments bare a similarity to a speech by Pence in Washington last week, in which he laid out allegations of Chinese election interference in the U.S. and lauded Taiwan’s democracy as a model for Chinese people. [FULL STORY]
