Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday pledged Beijing’s “reunification” with Taiwan in his year-end address, just weeks before the self-governing island holds elections for its president and legislature.
Xi Jinping stated, “The reunification of the motherland is a historical inevitability,” as reported by Reuters. The official English translation of his remarks, provided by his office, reads, “China will surely be reunified.”
Xi Jinping emphasized, “All Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” as per the translation provided by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This statement comes across as more assertive compared to the previous year. In the previous year, Xi referred to people on either side of the strait as “members of one and the same family,” emphasizing collaboration between China and Taiwan for the lasting prosperity of the Chinese nation, as reported by Reuters.
Xi’s recent statements reiterate his commitment to preventing any attempts to separate Taiwan from China. During the celebration of the 130th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s birth, Xi asserted that the complete reunification of the motherland is an unstoppable trend. Subsequently, China’s Defense Ministry reiterated the country’s readiness to use military force to annex Taiwan, a self-governed territory claimed by China. Chinese President Xi Jinping
Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesperson for the Defense Ministry, declared that China’s military would “firmly safeguard our national sovereignty and territorial integrity” by taking all necessary measures, as reported by The Associated Press (AP).
The majority of Taiwan’s population of about 23 million people is in support of keeping the island’s self-governing status, the AP noted.