Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen stressed that the island deterred the Chinese army six decades ago when its forces bombed two Taiwanese islands, and that the determination to defend the homeland continues today.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told a visiting group of US academics on Tuesday that the island deterred the Chinese army six decades ago when its forces bombed two Taiwanese islands, and that the determination to defend the homeland continues today.
Tensions between Taiwan and China have risen over the past month following a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei. And China conducted war games near Taiwan to express its anger at what it saw as increasing US support for the island, which Beijing considers a territory under Chinese sovereignty.
Meeting a delegation from Stanford University's Hoover Institution in her office, Tsai recalled the month-long attacks by China on the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen and Matsu islands off the Chinese coast that began in August 1958.
"Sixty-four years ago during the battle of August 23, our soldiers and civilians worked together and protected Taiwan so that we would have a democratic Taiwan today," she said.
"The battle to protect our homeland has shown the world that no threat of any kind can shake the determination of the Taiwanese people to defend their nation, not in the past, now or in the future," she added.
"We will also show the world that the people of Taiwan have the determination and confidence at the same time to safeguard peace, security, freedom and prosperity for ourselves," she said.
The battle ended with the failure of China to seize the two islands.
In 1958, Taiwan resisted the attack with the support of the United States, which sent in military hardware such as the Sidewinder advanced anti-aircraft missiles, giving Taiwan a technological advantage.
This crisis is often called the "Second Taiwan Strait Crisis," and was the last time Taiwanese forces engaged in large-scale combat with China.
The United States, which abandoned formal diplomatic relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing in 1979, remains Taiwan's most important arms exporter.
Taiwan's government says that because China has never ruled the island, it has no right to claim it or decide its future, something only Taiwan's 23 million people can determine.