Taiwan Wants ‘Status Quo’, Not China’s Path, President Says

Thunder Tiger Aerobatics Team fly over President Office during National Day celebrations in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021. (AP)
Thunder Tiger Aerobatics Team fly over President Office during National Day celebrations in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021. (AP)
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Taiwan Wants ‘Status Quo’, Not China’s Path, President Says

Thunder Tiger Aerobatics Team fly over President Office during National Day celebrations in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021. (AP)
Thunder Tiger Aerobatics Team fly over President Office during National Day celebrations in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021. (AP)

Taiwan’s president on Sunday called for the maintenance of the political status quo in a forthright speech which acknowledged rising pressure from China

Tsai Ing-wen also firmly rejected Chinese military coercion, a stance driven home by a rare demonstration of Taiwan’s defense capabilities in a parade on its National Day.

A choir of singers from Taiwan’s various indigenous tribes sang to open the ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building in the center of Taipei that was built by the Japanese who ruled the island as a colony for 500 years until the end of World War II.

“We will do our utmost to prevent the status quo from being unilaterally altered,” she said. China claims Taiwan as part of its national territory although the island is self-ruled.

“We will continue to bolster our national defense and demonstrate our determination to defend ourselves in order to ensure that nobody can force Taiwan to take the path China has laid out for us,” Tsai said. “This is because the path that China has laid out offers neither a free and democratic way of life for Taiwan, nor sovereignty for our 23 million people.”

Surveys show overwhelmingly favor their current de-facto independent state and strong rejects unification with China, which claims as part of its national territory to be brought until its control by military force if necessary. Taiwan has evolved into a vibrant democracy while China remains a deeply authoritarian, sing-party Communist state.

Tsai, who rarely directly singles out China in her public speeches, acknowledged the increasingly tense situation that Taiwan faces as Chinese military harassment intensified in the past year. Since September of last year, China has flown fighter jets more than 800 times towards Taiwan.

The island has strengthened its unofficial ties with countries like Japan, Australia and the US in the face of these tensions. “But the more we achieve, the greater the pressure we face from China,” she said.

Following Tsai’s address, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense showed off a range of weaponry including missile launchers and armored vehicles while fighters jets and helicopters soared overhead.

Tsai said Taiwan wanted to contribute to the peaceful development in the region even as the situation becomes more “becoming more tense and complex” in the Indo-Pacific.

On Saturday, China’s leader Xi Jinping said that reunification with Taiwan “must be realized” and said that peaceful reunification was in interests of the entire nation, including Taiwanese people.

“No one should underestimate the Chinese people’s strong determination, will and capability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Since last Friday, China has sent a record breaking number of fighter jets towards international airspace close to Taiwan.

Following Tsai’s speech, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense showed off a series of its weapons and defense capabilities. First, several assault helicopters flew across the sky. Then, air force pilots flew a formation of F-16, Indigenous Defense Fighters and Mirage 2000’s, leaving white contrails in their wake.

They were followed by a group of CM32 tanks, followed later by trucks carrying the Thunderbolt 2000 missile system. More missiles followed, such as the domestically-made Hsiung Feng III, a supersonic missile system, and communications vehicles which help guide the weapons to their targets.

The parade also featured Taiwan’s Olympic athletes who medaled at the Tokyo summer games, as well as public health officials, including those who staff a daily press conference about the pandemic, wearing their distinctive neon yellow-edged vests.

Tsai also called on other legislative parties to put aside politics in order to push for the reform of the island’s constitution, a document created by the then-ruling Nationalist Party in 1947 before it lost power and fled China ahead of the Communist takeover two years later.



Israel Warns of ‘Prolonged’ War Against Iran

This picture shows the heavily damaged building of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) after it was hit a few days earlier in an Israeli strike, in Tehran, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
This picture shows the heavily damaged building of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) after it was hit a few days earlier in an Israeli strike, in Tehran, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
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Israel Warns of ‘Prolonged’ War Against Iran

This picture shows the heavily damaged building of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) after it was hit a few days earlier in an Israeli strike, in Tehran, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)
This picture shows the heavily damaged building of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) after it was hit a few days earlier in an Israeli strike, in Tehran, on June 19, 2025. (AFP)

Israel's war against Iran, now in its second week, will be "prolonged", military chief Eyal Zamir said Friday as the arch rivals traded fire and European powers held talks with the country.

"We must be ready for a prolonged campaign," Zamir told Israelis in a video statement, eight days after his country launched a massive wave of strikes it said aimed at stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons -- an ambition Tehran has denied.

"We have embarked on the most complex campaign in our history to remove a threat of such magnitude," said Zamir.

"The campaign is not over. Although we have made significant achievements, difficult days still lie ahead."

Iran has responded with barrages of missiles and drones, which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people.

A hospital in the Israeli port of Haifa reported 19 injured, including one person in serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo, which President Isaac Herzog said hit a mosque.

Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people since June 13, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.

As US President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of entering the war between the two foes, top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany were meeting with their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Friday.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the Europeans were "putting a diplomatic solution on the table".

On the ground, Israel's military said it struck missile launchers in southwestern Iran after overnight air raids on dozens of targets including what it called a "nuclear weapons project" research and development center.

In Israel, sirens sounded in the afternoon after missiles were launched from Iran for the second time on Friday, with a military official saying that "approximately 20 missiles were launched towards Israel".

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted military sites and air forces bases.

- 'Betrayal' of diplomacy -

Trump has said he will decide "within the next two weeks" whether to involve the United States in the fighting.

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said "a window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution", while agreeing with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that "Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon".

Western governments suspect Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said that while Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent, there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.

"So, saying how long it would take for them, it would be pure speculation because we do not know whether there was somebody... secretly pursuing these activities," the agency's chief Rafael Grossi told CNN.

"We haven't seen that and we have to say it."

France's foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said that "military solutions are not long-term solutions" to ensure Iran respects its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, Araghchi said Israel's attacks were a "betrayal" of diplomatic efforts to reach a nuclear deal between Tehran and Washington.

"We were attacked in the midst of an ongoing diplomatic process," he said.

In an interview with German publication Bild, Israel's top diplomat Gideon Saar said he did not "particularly" believe in diplomacy with Iran.

"All diplomatic efforts so far have failed," said Saar, whose country had supported Trump's 2018 decision to abandon a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers.

- 'Madness' -

The UN Security Council convened on Friday for a second session on the conflict, which was requested by Iran with support from Russia, China and Pakistan, a diplomat told AFP on Wednesday.

The escalating confrontation is quickly reaching "the point of no return", Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday, saying "this madness must end as soon as possible".

UN chief Antonio Guterres meanwhile pleaded with all sides to "give peace a chance".

Any US involvement in Israel's campaign would be expected to involve the bombing of an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo, using powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses.

In Iran, people fleeing Israel's attacks described frightening scenes and difficult living conditions, including food shortages.

Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said authorities had restricted internet access to avoid "problems" like cyberattacks.

Iranian authorities have arrested a European "who sought to spy on sensitive areas of the country", Tasnim news agency reported on Friday.

Protests were held in Tehran and other cities after Friday prayers, with demonstrators chanting slogans in support of their leaders, state television showed.

"I will sacrifice my life for my leader," read a protester's banner, a reference to supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Switzerland announced it was temporarily closing its embassy in Tehran, adding that it would continue to fulfil its role representing US interests in Iran.