00:00We must work together to protect our democratic and free way of life, Taiwan's President Lai
00:06Qingte said on Sunday, as he urged members of his Democratic Progressive Party not to
00:11allow the island to become China's Taiwan.
00:14The ruling DPP champions Taiwan's separate identity from China.
00:19It's a position that frequently angers Beijing, which views the island as an inviolable part
00:24of Chinese territory.
00:25Speaking at the party's annual convention, Lai called for unity among members to jointly
00:31oppose the threat posed by China's Red Terror to Taiwanese society.
00:38He added that Taiwan's future must be decided jointly by the 23 million people of Taiwan,
00:45regardless of ethnic backgrounds and when they arrived on the democratically ruled island.
00:50Lai was elected president two years ago and is also his party's chairman.
00:54He spoke of Taiwan's strength as a democracy under the DPP government through the past decade
01:01and praised the island for not backing down despite what he called authoritarian expansion,
01:07disinformation campaigns, military threats and diplomatic pressure.
01:11Just last week, Papua New Guinea announced the closure of Taiwan's representative office
01:16in the country.
01:18Like most others, the Pacific Island nation has formal ties with Beijing, not Taipei.
01:24China highly commended the move by Papua New Guinea, while the U.S. State Department called
01:30it part of an intimidation campaign by Beijing.
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