TAIPEI: The expression “Taiwan independence” means the island neither belongs to nor is subordinate to Beijing and that only the Taiwanese people can decide their future, President Lai Ching-te said on Sunday.
Lai’s comments, a reiteration of his views, come days after President Donald Trump met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing for a summit that raised concerns in Taiwan about US backing for the island.
Trump told Fox News after the summit: “We’re not looking to have somebody say, ‘Let’s go independent because the United States is backing us’.”
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Beijing’s control, especially if China judges the island is seeking formal independence.
Speaking in Taipei, Lai said his Democratic Progressive Party had passed a resolution in 1999, which remains party policy, that Taiwan is already a sovereign and independent country called the Republic of China.
