TAIPEI - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen visited sailors in the island's navy to thank them for their efforts amid days of war games and military drills by China, calling the pressure they had faced in the past has been indescribable China, which claims to have Taiwan as its own territory, and has been staging such exercises this month to show its anger at the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Visiting the Suao naval base on Taiwan's northeastern coast late Thursday night, Tsai told sailors that fulfilling their mission in the tight confines of a ship must have been difficult.
It is important to keep an eye on the dynamics of enemy ships in the face of China's harassment and provocation outside Taiwan's territorial waters. According to footage released by the defence ministry, the pressure is so great that it is indescribable.
She said that the military has shown firmness and unwavering courage and calmly responded, guarding maritime security and maintaining regional peace.
Taiwan is like a navy ship, Tsai said.
As long as the comrades on board are united, they can overcome all the challenges in front of them, even though it sometimes encounters unpredictable winds and waves. This is the spirit of the Taiwanese people, but also the spirit of naval officers and sailors. The island's defence ministry has stressed its calm response to the Chinese activities, and Tsai has said that Taiwan would neither escalate conflict nor provoke during the crisis.
The scale of China's drills is much reduced from earlier in the month, but Taiwan continues to report Chinese fighters and warships operating around the island.