Taiwan President Lai Ching-te speaks at an event to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Progressive Party in Taipei, Taiwan on May 17, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Taiwan will not be sacrificed or traded and will not give up its free way of life under pressure, President Lai Ching-te wrote on Facebook on Sunday (May 17, 2026), adding that U.S. arms sales to the island were a security commitment based on law.
Mr. Lai’s comments were his first direct response to the summit last week in Beijing between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that raised concerns in democratically governed Taiwan about U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
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“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 says it is a Chinese province, not a country.
Shared interest
Ensuring 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-U.S. 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 U.S. 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 $11 billion arms sales package, the largest ever, Reuters has reported that a second one worth some $14 billion still awaits his nod.
‘Sovereign country’
Mr. Lai also reiterated his stance that the Republic of China, Taiwan’s formal name, was a “sovereign, independent, democratic country”.
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”, Lai said.
“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.
Published – May 17, 2026 07:57 pm IST
