remarks

President Lai Ching-te says Taiwan "will never be sacrificed or traded away"
- as the government and the D-P-P continue to respond to remarks by U-S
President Donald Trump last week following his meeting China's Xi Jinping.

Lai said ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait has long been a
broad consensus and shared interest of Taiwan, the United States and all
democratic countries around the world.

Lai used social media to describe what he called the "greatest consensus"
among Taiwan's people ..

.... including the position that the Republic of China and the People's
Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, that Taiwan's
sovereignty must not be infringed upon or annexed, and that Taiwan's future
should be decided by its people.

Lai went on to claim that his points of consensus "are also the status quo"
his government is seeking to defend, and there is no so-called 'Taiwan
independence issue."

In an interview with Fox News aired last Friday, Trump said that he did not
want to see Taiwan declare independence, but instead hoped to see tensions
eased between Taiwan and China.

Trump also said his administration is weighing a new round of weapons sales
to Taiwan, but stopped short of saying whether he would approve the package.