President Lai Ching-te said China has no right to represent the people of Taiwan during his first National Day address. He also called for unity and for people to put aside their differences, while offering an olive branch to Beijing amid heightened cross-strait tensions.
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00:00On the streets of Taipei, a vivid display of what it means to be Taiwanese, as the country
00:08marks its national day.
00:11Presiding over festivities for the first time, President Lai Ching-de, who took place some
00:16six months ago.
00:26Since assuming the presidency, Lai has had to deal with China's increasing aggression
00:30towards Taiwan, which it claims as part of its territory.
00:54Beijing takes particular issue with Lai and his position on Taiwanese self-rule, labelling
00:59him a dangerous separatist.
01:02Lai's stance also has him fending off hostility at home.
01:06The legislature is in the hands of opposition parties sympathetic to China, and they threatened
01:12to block Lai's 2025 budget if he took too hard a line on Beijing in this speech.
01:19So the pressure that Lai is under is one domestic, where the opposition is quite eager
01:25to seize on everything that he says, to say that he is endangering the people of Taiwan.
01:31Then at the same time, Lai has to worry about the external factors.
01:35So one would be how Beijing reacts, whether Beijing will put more pressure on Taiwan.
01:41But in his National Day address, Lai also offered a rare olive branch to Beijing.
02:10Beijing has yet to comment on Lai's speech, but it's expected to respond with military
02:14drills in the coming days.
02:16The Taiwanese president trod a fine line in his address to the nation, standing up for
02:21his country's sovereignty, careful not to provoke political opposition at home and wary
02:26of increasing the ire of a neighbour that threatens its future.
02:31Chris Ma and Rick Lowatt for Taiwan Plus.