President Tsai Ing-wen has confirmed that US troops are in Taiwan helping to train Taiwanese forces. That came during an interview with CNN published on Thursday.
Tsai’s remark ends months of speculation that US forces might be helping to train their Taiwanese counterparts. However, Tsai said that the number of US troops in Taiwan is “not as many as people thought”.
Tsai said that the Chinese threat to Taiwan is increasing “every day”. However, she said that China should not imagine that Taiwan’s people will bow to pressure.
She said that Taiwan’s people continue to work every day to defend their democratic system and their values. She said, “If we fail, then that means people that believe in these values would doubt whether these are values that they (should) be fighting for."
At the same time, Tsai also said that she remains open to talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. She said, “I (would) encourage him to have more dialogue with the government and people here in Taiwan, and to get a better feel of what it's like in Taiwan ... And, of course, we would do more in terms of understanding the situation in China”.
She also said, “We have said again and again that we want to have dialogue with China and this is the best way to avoid misunderstanding, miscalculation and misjudgment in the management of the cross-strait relations”.
She also said that she has not abandoned hope for the possibility of democracy in China. She said “Democracy sometimes is chaotic. It's messy, confrontational, but in the end, you find the best way to govern”.