Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said peace can only be secured through strength and that not an inch of territory can be sacrificed, using a visit to a sensitive frontline island to mark a battle with Chinese forces nearly seven decades ago.
Lai travelled on Sunday to Kinmen, one of the islands that sit just off the Chinese coast. Taiwan has controlled Kinmen and Matsu since 1949, when the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei after losing the civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists. No peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed, which is part of why these small islands still carry such weight.
In heavy rain, Lai laid a wreath and bowed his head at a memorial park to mark the 68th anniversary of the 1958 clash, remembered as the start of the second Taiwan Strait crisis. Speaking afterwards to veterans over lunch, he thanked those who, in his words, stood united and fought to defend the territory.
The choice of setting was the message. Kinmen is close enough to the mainland to be a live symbol of the standoff, and a president marking a decades-old battle there, in person and in bad weather, is making a point about resolve rather than history.
The broader context is a long, unresolved dispute in which Beijing claims Taiwan and Taipei rejects that claim. Lai’s language, strength and no concessions, is aimed at both audiences at once: a domestic public and a government across the strait watching closely for any sign of give.
