TAIPEI, May 17 (Reuters) – The expression “Taiwan independence” means the island neither belongs to nor is subordinate to Beijing and that only the Taiwanese people can decide their future, President Lai Ching-te said on Sunday.
Lai’s comments, a reiteration of his views, come days after President Donald Trump met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing for a summit that raised concerns in Taiwan about U.S. backing for the island.
Trump told Fox News after the summit: “We’re not looking to have somebody say, ‘Let’s go independent because the United States is backing us’.”
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Beijing’s control, especially if China judges the island is seeking formal independence.
Speaking in Taipei, Lai said his Democratic Progressive Party had passed a resolution in 1999, which remains party policy, that Taiwan is already a sovereign and independent country called the Republic of China.
The government upholds that Taiwan’s sovereignty cannot be violated or annexed and that its future must be decided by its people, he said.
“Everyone can clearly understand that the meaning of the term ‘Taiwan independence’ actually refers to Taiwan not being part of the People’s Republic of China,” he told an event to mark the 40th anniversary of the DPP’s founding.
“It refers to the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China not being subordinate to each other,” Lai added.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists, who founded the People’s Republic.
Lai said that only with Taiwan can there be the Republic of China, whose territory also includes the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait and the Kinmen and Matsu islands which sit next to the Chinese coast.
“So it is very clear: the Republic of China has been in Taiwan for 70 or 80 years and has already become integrated with Taiwan as one,” he added.
“Whether we call it the Republic of China, the Republic of China, Taiwan, or Taiwan — basically, no matter what we are called internationally, it refers to us: the 23 million people of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.”
Lai did not refer to Trump in his speech nor answer questions shouted at him by reporters.
While the U.S. has traditionally been Taiwan’s most important international backer, Trump said on the flight back from Beijing that he has yet to decide on further arms sales to Taiwan, something set in U.S. law in the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard)
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