Xi Jinping says 'reunification' with Taiwan inevitable
Kyiv • UNN
Chinese leader Xi Jinping emphasized the inevitability of China's reunification with Taiwan in his New Year's address. China continues to strengthen its military presence around the island through regular drills.
No one can stop the “reunification” of China with Taiwan. This was stated by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in his New Year speech, reports UNN citing Reuters.
Xi also issued a clear warning to those Beijing considers pro-independence forces both inside and outside the island of 23 million people.
Beijing has stepped up military pressure near Taiwan in the past year, sending warships and aircraft into the waters and airspace around the island on an almost daily basis in what Taiwanese officials see as a gradual attempt to “normalize” China's military presence.
China considers democratically governed Taiwan its territory. But the Taiwanese government rejects Beijing's claims and says only its people can decide their future, and Beijing must respect the Taiwanese people's choice.
“People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can break our family ties, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification,” Xi said in a speech televised on China's state-run CCTV television channel.
In his New Year's speech last year, Xi said China's “reunification” with Taiwan was inevitable and that people on both sides “should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share the glory of the revitalization of the Chinese nation.
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Tensions have remained high throughout the year in the sensitive Taiwan Strait, especially after Lai Jing-je, whom Beijing considers a “separatist,” became the island's last president in May.
Earlier this month, China staged a major naval buildup around Taiwan and in the East and South China Seas after Lai stopped in Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam on a Pacific voyage that Beijing criticized.
China, which has never been reluctant to use force to take control of Taiwan, has conducted two rounds of military exercises around the island this year, saying they are a warning against “separatist acts” and has vowed to take further action if necessary.
