00:00Beijing has long taken issue with President Lai, labeling him a dangerous separatist just days before his inauguration last May.
00:08And relations between the two countries haven't improved much since then.
00:12Rhys airs this live in our Taipei newsroom with more on this fraught relationship.
00:17Rhys, what's China saying now on the one-year anniversary of Lai's presidency?
00:20Well, actually, nothing. No official diplomatic response from Beijing just yet.
00:30Their foreign affairs ministry held a press conference this afternoon, and there was no mention of Taiwan there at all.
00:36That press conference came just hours after President Lai Qingde held his press conference here in Taipei on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration.
00:46He, too, didn't directly mention China initially until he was prompted by a reporter.
00:53And here's what he had to say.
01:16Now, some pretty unprovocative comments there from the president.
01:23In terms of other responses from China, there hasn't been much of a military response yet either,
01:29other than the kind of day-to-day incursions that we've come to expect here in Taiwan.
01:34Despite no official response, we have had some comments from people, you know, Chinese citizens on the ground in Shanghai who were apparently paying close attention to President Lai Qingde's speech.
01:47And here's what one man had to say.
01:48Despite the muted response from Beijing, officials here in Taiwan say that they are still on high alert.
02:18They're possibly anticipating some military action from China around Taiwan in the coming days.
02:24China has a habit of flexing their military muscles during moments like these.
02:30For example, last year, just three days after President Lai's inauguration on May 20th,
02:36China started the Joint Sword A military drills around Taiwan.
02:42It was some of the biggest such drills that we've ever seen and simulated actually a full blockade of the country.
02:50Speaking of military action, in the 12 months since President Lai was sworn in, we've seen a lot of military flexing from China.
02:58What kinds of actions have we seen China take since May last year?
03:01Yeah, well, we've seen a lot of, you know, a lot of incursions into Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone or ADIZ.
03:12That's not Taiwan's official airspace, but they do use it as kind of a buffer zone against China.
03:18There was a dramatic increase in the number of incursions from 2023 to 24, almost doubling in those years.
03:26Remember, Lai, he started campaigning for the presidency in late 2023.
03:32He won the election in January of 24 and was then inaugurated in May of 24.
03:38And that brings us now to May of 2025.
03:41And going by the number of incursions so far this year, it looks like we're on track for another increase in terms of year-on-year incursions.
03:51And that's not to mention maritime incursions, which has been a hot topic recently here in Taiwan,
03:57especially after a lot of illegal smaller boat crossings from China to Taiwan.
04:03There were two just last week and another one just this morning.
04:07And Taiwan's Coast Guard fear that those could be China's ongoing grey zone warfare tactics.
04:13Those are attempts by Beijing to kind of slowly chip away at Taiwan's sovereignty and defense capabilities by means other than, you know, starting a direct conflict.
04:25Other examples of grey zone warfare tactics include recruiting spies here in Taiwan,
04:30of which there have been a couple of high profile cases recently, particularly involving military officials.
04:36It also includes, you know, cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns and attempts by Beijing to get people outside of China on their agenda of eventually unifying Taiwan with China.
04:51And with China having a tendency to react with military might around these politically sensitive times,
04:58there are hopes here in Taiwan that the lack of diplomatic response isn't just the calm before the storm.
05:06Thanks, Rhys.
05:09That was Rhys Ayers reporting from our Taipei newsroom.
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