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Taiwan safeguarding its ain information and refusing regularisation by China's Communist Party should not beryllium seen arsenic a provocation, President Lai Ching-te said connected Thursday (June 18, 2026), adding helium hoped a caller U.S. arms merchantability bundle tin beryllium approved soon.
Democratically governed Taiwan is viewed by China arsenic its ain territory and Beijing has stepped up subject and diplomatic unit against the island.
Speaking to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents' Club successful Taipei, Mr. Lai reiterated his tendency for talks based connected "parity and respect" with China, but said Taiwan had a close to protect its interests and that lone the Taiwanese radical tin determine their future.
"Taiwan's safeguarding of its ain nationalist information and maintaining its antiauthoritarian and escaped mode of life, its refusal to judge unification, and its refusal to judge regularisation by the Chinese Communist Party should not beryllium seen as a provocation against China," helium added.
China calls Mr. Lai a separatist and has rebuffed his aggregate offers of dialogue.
China's subject is extending into the Western Pacific, and its assorted forms of coercion proceed to intensify, Mr. Lai said.
"It is wide that China is the main driving unit changing the status quo successful the Taiwan Strait and affecting determination bid and stability."
Neither China's Taiwan Affairs Office nor Foreign Ministry instantly responded to requests for comment.
Arms sales
Taiwan has besides been unnerved by comments past period from U.S. President Donald Trump aft helium met China's Xi Jinping successful Beijing that helium was inactive considering whether to o.k. caller arms income for Taiwan, saying they were "a precise bully negotiating chip" with China.
Mr. Lai said the U.S. information committedness to Taiwan has not changed.
"The cardinal is that Taiwan indispensable not alteration people successful strengthening its ain defence capabilities, nor tin it dilatory its pace," helium said.
"We volition proceed to support adjacent connection with the U.S. government, and we besides anticipation the arms purchases tin beryllium approved arsenic soon arsenic possible."
Mr. Lai has championed accrued defence spending, successful enactment with calls from Mr. Trump for allies to spend much connected their military.
However, past period Taiwan's absorption dominated parliament lone approved two-thirds of the $40 cardinal supplementary defence fund Lai had proposed, cutting the portion that had been meant for drones and domestically produced weapons.
On Thursday (June 18), Taiwan's Defence Ministry said it was proposing different peculiar defence bundle worthy T$210 cardinal ($6.66 billion) for surveillance, coastal onslaught and tiny unmanned aboveground drones.
Mr. Lai said China should renounce the usage of force, and that Taiwan's weapons purchases nonstop an important connection to the satellite that it is willing to support itself.
Taiwan "is consenting to safeguard its ain nationalist security, and is besides consenting to stock corporate defence responsibilities with the planetary community, successful bid to create a deterrent effect and execute determination bid and stability".
