Taiwan’s president pledges to defend island’s sovereignty after China’s military drills

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te vowed to defend the self-ruled island’s sovereignty in the face of China’s “expansionist ambitions,” days after Beijing wrapped up live-fire military drills around the island.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on Thursday vowed to defend the self-ruled island’s sovereignty in the face of China’s “expansionist ambitions,” days after Beijing wrapped up live-fire military drills around the island.

“In the face of China’s rising expansionist ambitions, the international community is watching to see whether the Taiwanese people have the resolve to defend themselves,” Lai said in his New Year’s address.

“As president, my stance has always been clear: to firmly safeguard national sovereignty, strengthen national defense and the resilience of the whole society, and comprehensively construct an effective deterrence and democratic defense mechanism,” he added.

Lai’s comments came days after China wrapped up live-fire drills around Taiwan featuring rocket launches, aircraft and warships. Beijing had expressed anger at a planned U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, as well as at comments by Japan’s new leader that Tokyo could intervene in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

The planned U.S. arms sale, valued at more than $11 billion, is the country’s largest so far to Taiwan. It includes missiles, drones, artillery systems and military software.