TAIPEI, Taiwan – Taiwan celebrated its National Day holiday on Thursday due to threats from China, which claims the self-governing island republic as its territory.
The celebration marks the founding of the Republic of China, which overthrew the Qing dynasty in 1911 and fled to Taiwan as Mao Zedong’s Communists seized power on the mainland during a civil war in 1949. in the 1980s and 1990s but retains the original constitution imported from China and the ROC flag.
President Lai Ching-te took office in May, continuing an eight-year rule by the Democratic Progressive Party that rejected China’s request to recognize Taiwan as part of China. The Nationalists hold to a unified position that sees both sides of the Taiwan Strait as one nation.
Thursday’s celebrations were to include speeches by Lai and others, performances in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei, including a guard, a military marching band and a flyover of military aircraft, but no display of heavy military weapons as seen in previous years.
Maintaining its military pressure on Taiwan, China’s People’s Liberation Army sent 15 aircraft across the central line in the Taiwan Strait, prompting Taiwan to scrambling jets, deploying ships and opening missile systems.
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