Taiwan's Lai: Peace secured by strength, no inch of territory to sacrifice
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on Sunday marked the 68th anniversary of the 1958 Kinmen battle with a visit to the frontline island, saying that peace must be secured through strength and that not an inch of territory could be sacrificed.
Lai laid a wreath and bowed at a memorial park in Kinmen, which lies less than 2 km from Chinese-controlled territory. The 1958 clash, known as the second Taiwan Strait crisis, was the last large-scale battle between Taiwanese and Chinese forces.
Addressing veterans later, Lai expressed gratitude to those who “stood united and fought a bloody battle to repel Communist totalitarian aggression”. He said the battle proved that “peace is secured through strength” and called for maintaining “the spirit of never yielding an inch” of Taiwan, Kinmen and other islands.
“Our resolve to unite in defending national sovereignty and safeguarding peace across the Taiwan Strait must never waver,” Lai said. “Peace has never simply fallen from the sky.”
The Kinmen and Matsu islands have been under Taipei’s control since the Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists. No peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed between the two sides.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has repeatedly denounced Lai as a “separatist”. Lai rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claim, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, but he has also offered talks with China.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the 1958 battle, Chinese forces began more than a month of bombardment of Kinmen and Matsu, including naval and air battles. Taiwan fought back with support from the United States, though the crisis ended in a stalemate. Taiwan observes August 23 every year as the date it fended off the Chinese attack.
Referring to increased Chinese activity, Lai said that for 68 years China had not stopped its “ambitions for external expansion for even a single day”, bringing “unease” across the Indo-Pacific. China’s coast guard has conducted regular “law enforcement” patrols around Kinmen in Taiwan-controlled waters since early 2024, to Taipei’s anger.
The Taiwan government announced on Thursday that planned defence spending for next year would exceed T$1 trillion ($30 billion) for the first time. Lai said he hoped for strong support for the budget.
