Peace can only be secured through strength, and not even an inch of territory can be sacrificed, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Sunday (August 23, 2026), visiting a sensitive frontline island to mark a key battle with Chinese forces almost seven decades ago.
Taiwan’s planned defence spending next year will exceed T$1 trillion ($30 billion) for the first time, the government announced on Thursday, and Mr.
Lai said he hoped for strong support for the budget.
No peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed. “Peace has never simply fallen from the sky. Taiwan has controlled the Kinmen and Matsu islands, which lie just off the Chinese coast, since the Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists.
“Our resolve to unite in defending national sovereignty and safeguarding peace across the Taiwan Strait must never waver,” Mr. Lai said. The 1958 battle proves “that peace is secured through strength,” he said, adding it was necessary to maintain “the spirit of never yielding an inch” of Taiwan, Kinmen and another group of islands, while continuously boosting military spending. Referring to those patrols and other Chinese tactics, 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.
