Xi Vows Reunification Of China With Taiwan In New Year Message
By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his New Year’s message on Tuesday, said no one can stop China’s “reunification” with Taiwan, laying down a clear warning to what Beijing sees as pro-independence forces on the island, which has a population of 23 million.
Beijing has, in recent times, increased military pressure near Taiwan, sending warships and planes into the waters and airspace around the island.
Taiwanese officials have viewed Beijing’s actions as a creeping effort to “normalise” China’s military presence.
China claims that Taiwan, a democratically governed island, is its own territory, a claim Taiwan’s government has rejected. Instead, it insists that only its people can decide their future, urging Beijing to respect the choice of the Taiwanese people.
“The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can sever our family bonds, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification,” Xi said in a speech televised on China’s state broadcaster CCTV.
China’s “reunification” with Taiwan is inevitable, and people on both sides “should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” the Chinese leader said in his New Year’s message last year.
China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, conducted two rounds of war games around the island last year, saying they were warnings against “separatist acts” and vowed to take further actions if needed.
U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, allowed by the Taiwan Relations Act, have also continued to strain Beijing’s ties with Washington.
China has regularly warned the U.S. against any military ties with Taiwan.
It also imposed sanctions on Taiwan’s military suppliers and their executives.
During his first term as U.S. President, Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated for a second term this month, was widely seen as a friend to Taiwan, having bolstered support for the island through increased arms sales and upgraded diplomatic visits.
But that goodwill disappeared on the campaign trail, with Trump repeatedly claiming that the self-ruled democracy should pay the U.S. more for “protection” and that it had “stolen” America’s chip business.
