President Lai's Kinmen visit
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te visited a memorial park in Kinmen on August 23 to mark the 68th anniversary of the 1958 clash with Chinese forces, a battle that began the second Taiwan Strait crisis and was the last large-scale confrontation between Taiwanese and Chinese forces. In heavy rain, Lai laid a wreath and bowed in commemoration.
Kinmen and the nearby Matsu islands lie just off the Chinese coast, less than 2 km from Chinese-controlled territory at the closest point. Taiwan has controlled the islands since the 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 between the two sides.
'Peace through strength' message
Addressing veterans later, Lai expressed gratitude to those who "stood united and fought a bloody battle to repel Communist totalitarian aggression." He said, "Our resolve to unite in defending national sovereignty and safeguarding peace across the Taiwan Strait must never waver," and added, "Peace has never simply fallen from the sky."
The president said the 1958 battle proves "that peace is secured through strength," and stressed the need to maintain "the spirit of never yielding an inch" of Taiwan, Kinmen, and another group of islands, while continuously boosting military spending.
Defence spending and cross-strait relations
Taiwan's planned defence spending for the next year will exceed T$1 trillion ($30 billion) for the first time, an announcement made on August 20. Lai has offered talks with China but rejects Beijing's sovereignty over Taiwan, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has repeatedly denounced Lai as a "separatist."
Kinmen's strategic context
In the 1958 battle, Chinese forces began more than a month of bombardment of Kinmen and Matsu, including naval and air battles, seeking to force them into submission. Taiwan fought back with support from the United States. China's coast guard has also conducted regular "law enforcement" patrols around Kinmen in Taiwan-controlled waters since early 2024, according to reports.