China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using Taiwan President Lai Ching-te's upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the island to accept its sovereignty claims,

It is “absolutely impossible” for Communist China to become Taiwan’s motherland because the island’s government is older, Taiwan’s president has said in a carefully timed speech that underscores the intense historical rivalry between the two.

Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te said it was “impossible” for mainland China to become the self-governing island’s motherland, claiming that Taiwan had older political roots. “In terms of age, it is absolutely impossible for the People’s Republic of China to become the motherland of the Republic of China’s people,