• Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen will address the island’s military in her National Day speech on Monday.
• A source says she will talk about “improving national defence combat power and uniting the morale of the people.”
• This comes at a time when tensions with China have gotten much worse.

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen will promise to improve the island’s military power and defences. This comes at a time when tensions with China have gotten much worse, In a major speech on Monday.

China claims democratic Taiwan as its own land, so Beijing is putting more military and political pressure on it. This is especially true since China held war games in early August after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went to Taiwan.

A source who knows what Tsai will say in her National Day speech on Monday told Reuters that she will talk about “improving national defence combat power and uniting the morale of the people.”

“The president will also talk more about efforts to strengthen national defence combat power and resilience,” a source said. “This is in addition to reaffirming Taiwan’s resolve to improve its self-defence and its position on keeping peace and stability in the region.”

China is pushing its sovereignty claims against Taiwan, so Tsai is in charge of a programme to update the military and increase spending on defence.

A source said that Tsai will say that “democratic resilience” is the key to protecting Taiwan in her speech outside the presidential office in central Taipei. There will also be a military parade at the same time.

The president will say that this means continuing to improve international cooperation and “closely connecting” democratic allies.

Tsai will speak less than a week before the Chinese Communist Party’s congress starts in Beijing. Most people expect President Xi Jinping to win a third five-year term, which would be a first.

Under the “one country, two systems” model, China has promised to work for Taiwan’s peaceful “reunification.”

Opinion polls show that almost no one in Taiwan supports this idea, and all of the major political parties in Taiwan have said no to it. China has also never given up the idea of using force to take over Taiwan.

China won’t talk to Tsai because it thinks she is a separatist. Tsai was re-elected in 2020 with a huge majority because she promised to stand up to Beijing. Tsai has offered talks based on equality and respect for each other many times.

She has made improving Taiwan’s defences a top priority of her government so that Taiwan can be a more credible deterrent to China, which is stepping up an ambitious military modernization programme.

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