Taiwan President Lai Ching-te drew on the Sermon on the Mount in his National Day address on 10 October, calling on the island to become a “city upon a hill” and describing it as the salt and light of the world. Analysts say the biblical language was aimed largely at the United States, at a time of doubt over American support for Taipei.
Lai spoke for 25 minutes in front of the presidential office building in Taipei, after a morning of marching bands and mass displays. The speech marked 30 years since Taiwan’s first direct presidential election, and about two-thirds of it dealt with domestic matters. He said Taiwan’s survival against authoritarian expansion would test whether the world still believes force cannot override rules, urged the Taiwanese to unite to protect peace in the Indo-Pacific, criticised China’s grey-zone activities and defended plans to raise defence spending as a way to deter war rather than provoke it.
The hill imagery traces back to Puritan leader John Winthrop’s 1630 address to settlers bound for Massachusetts Bay, and Ronald Reagan often used it to describe the United States. Ava Shen of Eurasia Group said the language reminds Washington that Taiwan is a democratic peer and a worthy partner. Ding Shuh-fan, emeritus professor at National Chengchi University, said Lai was speaking to the world but mainly to voters ahead of November’s nine-in-one local elections, seen as a mid-term test before the 2028 presidential race.
The speech came weeks after Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met in Washington in late September, their second meeting this year, with Taiwan on the agenda. Beijing said Xi urged Trump to oppose Taiwan independence. After their May meeting, Trump held back a proposed US$14 billion arms sale to Taiwan, calling it a “very good negotiating chip”. Taiwanese and US officials say Washington’s policy has not changed, and Reuters quoted a senior US official as welcoming Lai’s commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhang Han accused Lai of distorting right and wrong, while Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council urged Beijing to stop its coercion within hours. Observers called Lai’s cross-strait remarks more restrained than in past years: he criticised grey-zone pressure only once and dropped a 2024 phrase that had angered Beijing. Shen said China was unlikely to go beyond verbal criticism. Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and has not ruled out using force, a claim Taipei rejects.
