Taiwan President Lai Ching-te says the island will not be sacrificed or traded and will not give up its free way of life under pressure.He wrote on Facebook on Sunday that US arms sales to Taiwan were a security commitment based on law.Mr Lai's comments were his first direct response to last week's summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, which raised concerns in democratically governed Taiwan about US backing for the island.Mr Trump said he was still considering whether to go ahead with new weapons sales to the Chinese-claimed island and that the US was "not looking to have somebody say, 'Let's go independent because the United States is backing us.'"'Very concerned'Mr Lai said people were "very concerned" about the Taiwan content of that meeting, while also thanking the US government for its continued attention to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and for its support for Taiwan.Taiwan would not provoke or escalate conflict, he added.Lai Ching-te has reiterated his stance that Taiwan will not be traded away. (Reuters: Ann Wang)"But we will also not give up our national sovereignty and dignity, or our democratic and free way of life, under pressure," Mr Lai said, adding that China was the source of regional instability.There was no immediate response from China to his comments.China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control and it says it is a Chinese province, not a country.Shared interestEnsuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait had always been a strong consensus and shared interest of Taiwan, the United States, and democratic countries around the world, Mr Lai wrote."Taiwan will absolutely not be sacrificed or traded."Long-term Taiwan-US security cooperation and arms sales were based on the Taiwan Relations Act, he said, referencing the 1979 law that mandates the sale of weapons to the island."This is not only a US security commitment to Taiwan, but also the most important deterrent force over the years against actions that undermine regional peace and stability."While the Trump administration in December approved an $US11 billion ($15.42 billion) arms sales package, the largest ever, Reuters reported that a second one worth some $US14 billion still awaited his approval.'Sovereign country'Mr Lai also reiterated his stance that the Republic of China, Taiwan's formal name, was a "sovereign, independent, democratic country".He said the Republic of China and the People's Republic were not subordinate to each other; Taiwan's future must be decided by its own people, and its "sovereignty cannot be violated or annexed"."This is the greatest consensus of all the people of Taiwan, and it is the status quo that we seek to defend. There is no so-called 'Taiwan independence' issue."The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's communists, who founded the People's Republic.