Taiwan Representative Rejects Claims of Creating Regional Tensions

Taiwan's representative to the United States said Sunday that his country seeks only to prevent the People's Republic of China from absorbing the island. President Donald Trump met Thursday and Friday with Chinese President Xi Jingping in Beijing. Trump then appeared to signal a softening of America's approach to Taiwan in a Friday interview.

Taiwanese representative Alexander Yui told Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan that Taiwan was not creating tensions in Asia. "President Trump doesn't want a war 9,500 miles away. We don't want a war, you know. We want peace and stability. We want to have our lives going as, you know, as usual," Yui said.

" "And that's why, you know, it's like our house: those are intruders trying to get into our house; we're trying to beef up our security system," Yui continued.

"My president just made a statement recently, just now, and it means that Taiwan is independent from the Chinese aggression, from the PRC [People's Republic of China], actually. " "It is self-evident that the ROC (Taiwan) is a sovereign democratic country.

Beijing has no right to claim jurisdiction over Taiwan," the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a Saturday statement. "China's military threat remains the primary source of regional instability, driving countries in the first island chain to strengthen their defense capabilities in coordination with the United States," the statement continues.

Taiwan received $1.41 billion in defense articles between July 2023 and December 2024, the Government Accountability Office reported. Yui said the assets being provided included F-16 Block 70 fighters. "We believe in peace through strength, so actually it makes more sense for United States to sell us the arms so we can defend ourselves and so you don't have to send your army 9,500 miles away to defend us," Yui told Brennan.