Taoyuan (Taiwan) (AFP) – Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te vows to “defend the values of freedom and democracy” as China conducts military drills around the island days after his inauguration. Democratic Taiwan is accustomed to frequent threats from China, which claims the island as part of its territory. Beijing has said it will never renounce the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and has in recent years upped the rhetoric of “unification” being “inevitable”.
