Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s threats of military action against Taiwan are “absolutely not an option” and will “only push our two sides further from each other,” Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Monday.

Speaking on Taiwan’s National Day, Tsai said China should not mistake competition within Taiwan’s multiparty democratic political system for weakness and “attempt to divide Taiwanese society.”

“I want to make clear to the Beijing authorities that armed confrontation is absolutely not an option for our two sides,” Tsai said.

TAIPEI, Oct 5 (Reuters) - China has destroyed a tacit agreement on military movements in the Taiwan Strait by crossing an unofficial "median line" running down the waterway, Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said on Wednesday.

While acknowledging the end of the tacit understanding on the median line, Chiu told Taiwan's parliament Taiwan would react if China crossed its "red line".

He did not say what Taiwan's "red line" was but suggested it included Chinese aircraft, including drones, flying into Taiwan's territory. He did not identify the median line as a "red line".

TAIPEI, Sept 23 (Reuters) - A Chinese blockade of Taiwan or the seizure of an offshore island would be considered an act of war and Taiwan would not surrender, a senior Taiwanese security official told Reuters using unusually strong and direct language.

While Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and others in her administration have repeatedly said that while they want peace they would defend themselves if attacked, the details of what Taiwan would consider an attack warranting a response have generally been left unsaid, given the many scenarios.

TAIPEI/BEIJING, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Taiwan will never allow China to "meddle" in its future, the government said on Wednesday, after a Chinese government spokesperson said Beijing was willing to make the utmost effort to strive for a peaceful "reunification" with the island.

China claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory. Taiwan's government rejects China's sovereignty claims.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A nighttime bus crash that killed 27 people in southwest China this week has set off a storm of anger online over the harshness of the country’s strict COVID-19 policies.

The initial police report did not say who the passengers were and where they were going, but it later emerged they were headed to a quarantine location outside their city of Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A strong earthquake shook much of Taiwan on Sunday, toppling a three-story building and trapping two people inside and knocking part of a passenger train off its tracks.

The magnitude 6.8 quake was the largest among dozens that have rattled the island’s southeastern coast since Saturday evening, when a 6.4 quake struck the same area.

Most of the damage appeared to be north of the epicenter, which Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said was in the town of Chishang at the relatively shallow depth of 7 kilometers (4 miles).

TAIPEI/FRANKFURT/WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The United States is considering options for a sanctions package against China to deter it from invading Taiwan, with the European Union coming under diplomatic pressure from Taipei to do the same, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

The sources said the deliberations in Washington and Taipei's separate lobbying of EU envoys were both at an early stage - a response to fears of a Chinese invasion that have grown as military tensions escalate in the Taiwan Strait.

TAIPEI, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Taiwan's government expressed its condolences to China on Tuesday for an earthquake in Sichuan province and said it was ready to send rescuers, in a sign of goodwill to Beijing despite weeks of military tensions.

China, which claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory despite the strong objections of the government in Taipei, has been carrying out drills around the island following a visit last month by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

TAIPEI, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The shooting down of a drone off the Chinese coast that buzzed a Taiwanese-controlled island was the most "appropriate" thing to do after repeated warnings, and China should exercise restraint, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Friday.

For the first time, Taiwan's military shot down an unidentified civilian drone that entered its airspace near an islet near China's Xiamen city on Thursday, after the government vowed tough measures against a rise in intrusions. 

TAIPEI, Sept 1 (Reuters) - China has been simulating attacks on U.S. Navy ships and is aiming to prevent foreign forces from coming to Taiwan's aid in the event of a war, Taiwan's defence ministry said in a strongly worded report raising the alarm on Beijing's military designs.

Tensions between Taiwan and China have soared following a visit to Taipei last month by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which infuriated Beijing, which viewed it as an interference in its affairs.