# President Tsai responds to the live-fire military exercises China has initiated around Taiwan

My fellow citizens: Good evening.

Today, China initiated live-fire military exercises in areas around Taiwan. This type of continued, deliberately heightened military threat, especially the dangerous launch of missiles into some of the busiest transportation corridors in the world, is irresponsible, both to Taiwan and to the entire international community.

This not only undermines the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and encroaches upon our nation's sovereignty. It also creates high tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, as part of which air and maritime transportation safety, as well as the normal functioning of international trade, are all coming under unprecedented threat. We solemnly call upon China to act with reason and exercise restraint.

I want to emphasize that we will neither escalate conflict nor instigate disputes. But we will resolutely defend our nation's sovereignty and security as a bulwark of democracy and freedom.

As we speak, our nation's armed forces are already heightening their readiness, and are closely following in real time all military developments in surrounding areas. We are also in close contact with our allies, working together to halt further escalation of the regional security situation.

Our national security agencies are monitoring the situation, and are communicating closely with other government agencies in order to ensure that flight and shipping routes remain safe and open, that our airports and seaports continue to function normally,…

- Kind: Short
- Year: 2022
- Runtime: 3 min
- By: Office of the President, ROC (Taiwan)
- Archive: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Tsai_responds_to_the_live-fire_military_exercises_China_has_initiated_around_Taiwan.webm)
- Licence or status: [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Office of the President, ROC (Taiwan)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/commons/121417946?play=1)