Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, once again refrained from elaborating on her cross-Straits relations policy while delivering a speech on Monday. Instead, she said that "our pledges and goodwill remain unchanged, but we will neither succumb to pressure nor revert to the old path of conflict and confrontation".

The same comments were made in a letter Tsai wrote to DPP members on Sept 29, in which she called the mainland a country for the first time and urged resistance against "pressure" from the other side of the Taiwan Straits.

In her speech on Monday, she told the mainland to "face up to the existence of the 'Republic of China'" and "respect Taiwan people's faith in democracy". She went on to suggest that both sides could talk about "anything in the interest of the peaceful development of cross-Straits ties and the livelihoods of people on both sides".