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‘Complete reunification of China will and can be realised’: President Xi Jinping
Xi’s call on reunifying Taiwan comes in the backdrop of a week of heightened military tension with the democratically-run island that Beijing claims as a breakaway region
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday said China can and will be reunified, sending out a word of warning to the so-called Taiwan secessionists who “betray the motherland” but holding off on the threat to use force. Xi was speaking at a meeting to mark the 110th anniversary of the Revolution of 1911.
Xi’s call on reunifying Taiwan comes in the backdrop of a week of heightened military tension with the democratically-run island that Beijing claims as a breakaway region.
The Chinese PLA deployed more than 150 fighter aircraft across the Taiwan Straits, which violated the island’s air space last week prompting Taipei to call it the worst tensions with China in 40 years.
The tension has also sparked international concern.
“The complete reunification of China will be and can be realised,” Xi was quoted as saying by Chinese state media, adding the Taiwan question, which is purely an internal matter for China, arose out of the weakness and chaos of the Chinese nation and will be resolved as national rejuvenation becomes a reality.
“It has never ended well for those who forget their ancestors, betray the motherland, or split the country,” Xi said at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Saturday.
“They will definitely be scorned by the people and judged by history,” he said.
“National reunification by peaceful means best serves the interests of the Chinese nation as a whole, including compatriots in Taiwan,” he noted.
“Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should stand on the right side of history and join hands to achieve China’s complete reunification and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Xi said.
The Xinhai Revolution started on October 10, 1911, and led to the end of a 2000-year-old monarchy in China.
The revolution established the Republic of China by the Kuomintang who later fled to Taiwan in the late 1940s after being defeated by the triumphant Communist Party of China – who then established “New China” in 1949.
Xi’s Saturday speech seemingly struck a softer note than the one he delivered on July 1 to mark the CPC’s 100 years in which he vowed to “smash” any attempts at formal independence.
In 2019, he directly threatened to use force to bring the island under Beijing’s control.
The presidential office in Taipei criticised Xi’s speech, saying Taiwan was a sovereign independent country, not part of the People’s Republic of China, and had clearly rejected China’s offer of “one country, two systems” to rule the island.
“The nation’s future rests in the hands of Taiwan’s people,” the presidential office was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.
Asked on Friday about news reports on the presence of US troops in Taiwan, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Washington should cease military ties and arms sales to Taiwan to avoid damaging bilateral relations.
“The US side should fully recognise the great sensitivity of the Taiwan issue,” he told a regular daily briefing.
“China will take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Zhao said.
