8m ago05.13

Taiwan’s top diplomat in the US has said the self-governing island has been “ bullied, marginalised and isolated from the world” for too long and maintained its people would not surrender their freedom.
In an interview with PBS NewsHour, Bi-khim Hsiao said:

For too long, Taiwan has been bullied, marginalised and isolated from the world and banned from international organisations. We don’t take our democracy for granted and we don’t take our friends for granted.

The scope and the range of the current exercises do demonstrate that this has long been in the coming. China’s escalation is unreasonable and unnecessary. We think it’s important that they understand such engagements between the people of Taiwan and the people around the world are consistent, with decades of practice.

There is no reason for them to escalate. Are we worried and concerned? Yes. That’s why we are also committed to investing in our own self-defence, in fortifying our asymmetric capabilities, in reforming our reserves, in better integrating civilian support in our homeland defence.

But I have to make clear that we don’t want war. We want peace. We will do anything we can to de-escalate. But we will not surrender our freedom.”