Tsai renews her pledge to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense during her visit to war memorial

By HUIZHONG WU
Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has renewed her pledge to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense as she visited a war memorial from the last time Taiwan and China battled. Tsai, visiting the outlying islands of Kinmen where the conflict was fought, commemorated those who had died in the conflict. She was accompanied by the Minister of Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng and the head of the National Security Council Wellington Koo. “In order to keep the peace, we need to strengthen ourselves,” said Tsai. In 1958, China began shelling Taiwan’s outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu, which sit geographically closer to China’s southern coast than they do Taiwan.