On 10th October, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen pledged that it would be heightening national security. She even added that her government won’t submit to the Chinese restrains as Beijing increases pressure to allege its sovereignty over the self-ruled island.

The statement made by Tsai came just before the island-wide local elections that is going to be held in late November that is considered as a harbinger for her ruling party’s performance for the presidential elections that is slated to be held in 2020. During the National Day speech in Taipei she stated that China’s coercion and strategic pressure would be hurting the relationship of both nations and it would also challenge the peaceful stability in the Taiwan Strait.

Tsai stated that Taiwan would be boosting the defense budget in order to protect its sovereignty. It would upgrade its military efficiency and self-sufficiency, by restarting domestic development of training aircraft as well as submarines.

China, considers Taiwan as an errant province, and has stepped up military and diplomatic pressure on Taipei, ringing in a lot of difficulty for the president and her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party.

Taiwan needs to work with other nations in order to build an alliance in order to defend its democracy. Tsai thanked the European Parliament and the United States for supporting Taiwan. The U.S. State Department accepted the selling of spare parts for F-16 fighter planes and other military aircraft worth up to $330 million last month to Taiwan.

China has never denied the use of force in order to bring Taiwan under their control and repeatedly calls the issue with the island a sensitive one.

Since Tsai came into office in 2016, relations with Beijing have plummeted; China suspects that Taiwan wants to reach out for formal independence, a red line for Beijing.

Tsai has repeatedly stressed on maintaining status quo since coming to power. She even called for a multinational attempt to fight some kind of infiltration. She added that Taiwan won’t submit to antagonism.