Taiwan wants to continue its free way of life and rejects being ruled by China's Communist Party, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said Friday during a visit to a front-line island between the two sides to mark a key battle with Chinese forces.
Taiwan has controlled the Kinmen and Matsu islands, which lay just off the Chinese coast, since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists. No peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed.
The scene of on-off fighting during the height of the Cold War, China's coast guard has since February conducted regular patrols around Kinmen following the death of two Chinese people on a speedboat, which Beijing blamed on Taipei.
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