(8 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Taipei – 8 May 2025
1. President Lai Ching-te arriving at the 80th anniversary commemoration ceremony of victory in Europe at Taipei Guest House in Taipei
2. Mid of audience watching World War II footage during Taiwan-EU-VE-Day event
3. Lai walking to podium
4. Reporters
5. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s President:
"Peace is priceless, and war has no winners. WWII was undoubtedly the deadliest war in human history, and the pain that it caused has echoed even to the present day."
6. Journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s President:
"History has taught us that no matter the driving reason or ideology, military aggression against another country is an unjust crime that is bound to fail. Those who unite as partners to defend their homelands, freedom, and democracy ultimately emerge victorious."
8. Wide of Lai speaking to audience
9. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s President:
"Only freedom and democracy can truly bring about national development, and only with respect for human dignity can a nation itself earn respect. Authoritarianism and aggression leads only to slaughter, tragedy, and greater inequality."
10. Photographers
11. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s President:
"Taiwan and Europe are now facing the threat of a new authoritarian bloc. We are seeing our decades-old undersea cables, crucial for communications and cybersecurity, being sabotaged. We are seeing external interference in our elections, crucial for healthy democratic development, through the spread of misinformation and disinformation, sowing intentional division in society. We are seeing our fair, free, and open international rules-based markets being tested by all manner of gray-zone activities, dumping, pressures, and intrusions."
12. Audience listening to Lai’s speech
13. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s President:
"This is our opportunity; there is no better time than now. I am confident that so long as we combine our efforts, our strength can earn us true and lasting peace."
14. Various of Lai shaking hands with audience members and leaving
STORYLINE:
Taiwan marked the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day on Thursday by making broad comparisons to threats from China, whose leader Xi Jinping was in Russia for commemorations.
“Peace is priceless, and war has no winners. History has taught us that no matter the driving reason or ideology, military aggression against another country is an unjust crime that is bound to fail," Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te told diplomats in Taipei.
“Authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy, and greater inequality,” he added.
Turning more directly to China’s threats, Lai said that both Taiwan and Europe were “now facing the threat of a new authoritarian bloc.”
“We are seeing our decades-old undersea cables, crucial for communications and cybersecurity, being sabotaged. We are seeing external interference in our elections, crucial for healthy democratic development, through the spread of misinformation and disinformation, sowing intentional division in society,” Lai said.
Lai’s remarks came during Taiwan’s first-ever official commemoration of V-E Day and at a time when Taiwan is making a diplomatic push for closer ties with fellow democracies that nevertheless have no formal ties with the island in deference to Beijing.
Former President Tsai Ing-wen is visiting Lithuania and Denmark from Friday, while Foreign Affairs Minister Lin Chia-lung is visiting Texas.
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