Taiwan's President Vows to Defend Island's Sovereignty After Chinese Military Drills

(Patria) - Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te on Thursday vowed to defend the self-governing island's sovereignty in the face of China's "expansionist ambitions," days after Beijing concluded live-fire military drills near its shores, AP reported.

"Faced with China's growing expansionist ambitions, the international community is watching whether the Taiwanese people have the determination to defend themselves," Lai said in his New Year's address.

"As president, my stance has always been clear: firmly protect national sovereignty, strengthen national defense and the resilience of the entire society, and comprehensively build an effective deterrence and democratic defense mechanism," he added.

Lai's comments came days after China concluded live-fire drills around Taiwan, including missile launches and the use of aircraft and warships. Beijing expressed anger over the planned sale of U.S. weapons to Taiwan, as well as comments by the new Japanese leader that Tokyo might intervene in case of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

China considers Taiwan its territory and threatens to annex it by force if necessary. Taiwan, a former Japanese colony, has been self-governing since 1949, when the Nationalist Party lost the civil war against the Communist Party of China and retreated to the island.

Lai's speech was met with anger in Beijing, where a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council called the president a "saboteur of peace, a troublemaker, and a warmonger," according to the official Xinhua news agency.

"No matter what Lai and the Democratic Progressive Party authorities say or do, they cannot change the fact that Taiwan is part of China," spokesperson Chen Binhua said.

The planned arms sale, estimated at more than eleven billion dollars, is the largest U.S. sale to Taiwan to date. It includes missiles, drones, artillery systems, and military software.

The United States is obligated under its own laws to provide Taiwan with the means for self-defense.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in his televised New Year's address on Wednesday, called the eventual annexation of Taiwan "unstoppable."

Taiwan announced last year a special budget of forty billion dollars for arms purchases, including the construction of an air defense system with a high level of detection and interception capabilities called the Taiwan Dome.

The budget will be disbursed over eight years, from 2026 to 2033, and comes after Lai had already pledged to increase defense spending to five percent of the island's GDP, as part of his strategy amid Chinese threats of invasion.

"Faced with China's serious military ambitions, Taiwan has no time to wait," Lai said.