Taiwan's president used the anniversary of the 1958 Kinmen battle to warn that peace with China cannot be taken for granted — a hard-line message aimed at Beijing and at voters at home.

• Lai Ching-te led the memorial at Kinmen for the 68th anniversary of the artillery battle, calling it the win that laid the foundation for decades of calm in the Taiwan Strait.
• His core warning: a country that forgets war puts itself in danger, even in peacetime.
• China's pressure has not stopped — coast guard ships keep pushing into Kinmen's waters in gray-zone harassment, and military activity now stretches across the first island chain and the wider Indo-Pacific.
• He rejected any peace deal that trades away sovereignty, saying surrender buys humiliation, not peace.
• The government promised to keep spending more on defense and to give up no ground in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, or Matsu.

Outlook: Expect Taiwan to keep raising defense budgets while Chinese ships and aircraft keep testing the line around Kinmen.