President Tsai Ing-wen said that China should respect Taiwan’s right to defend itself. She was responding to China’s anger at US President Donald Trump’s recent approval of a 66 F-16V fighter jet package for Taiwan.

Tsai said that the package is aligned with the principles in the US Taiwan Relations Act which says the US should help Taiwan defend itself. She said that Taiwan should have the right to defend itself as a nation and she hopes China can respect that.

Opposition Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu also said he was grateful for the US arms package. Han said a strong military is needed to support Taiwan.  He also said there needs to be a correct and pragmatic China policy to maintain peace across the strait. Tsai responded by saying that the opposition KMT has often scoffed at US arms packages but she was glad to see Han was in support of it.

On Tuesday, Tsai also highlighted China’s use of social media to spread disinformation about Hong Kong protests. Facebook and Twitter have deleted relevant accounts suspected to be sources of fake news from China. Tsai called on China to stop using fake news to confuse the people of Hong Kong and to sit down and engage in a dialogue with the people of Hong Kong.