(8 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Taipei, Taiwan – 8 May 2025
1. Mid of audience watching World War II footage during Taiwan-EU VE-Day event
2. President Lai Ching-te walking to podium
3. 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."
4. Wide of Lai speaking to audience
5. Audience listening to Lai’s speech
6. 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."
7. Lai 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.
China claims Taiwan as part of its territory to be annexed by force if necessary and says it has no right to international recognition.
Just 12 countries, mostly small island nations in the South Pacific and Caribbean, have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
China’s Xi, who has said Taiwan’s absorption by his authoritarian Communist regime is inevitable, was meanwhile being lauded by Russian President Vladimir Putin as “our main guest” at the Victory Day festivities.
AP Video shot by Johnson Lai and Taijing Wu
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