Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen expressed hopes for Taipei and Beijing to seek "long-term peaceful coexistence" and said future relations should be decided by Taiwan's "democratic procedures". Tsai also stood firm on Taiwan's need to defend its democracy. In her last New Year speech, Tsai expressed hopes to restart communications with Beijing and jointly seek a long-term and stable way of peaceful coexistence under peace, parity, democracy, and dialogue. Tsai emphasized that decisions about the relationship with China must be determined by Taiwan's democratic procedures.