Taiwan will be reunited with the mainland, according to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who also declared Beijing will “resolutely prevent anyone from splitting” the two sides in any way.
The remarks were made at a symposium honoring Mao Zedong, the founder of Communist China, on his 130th birthday in Beijing. The Republic of China government was overthrown by Mao’s nation in 1949, and it withdrew to Taiwan.
Even now, Beijing considers the democratically run island nation to be a part of its territory, much to Taipei’s government’s disapproval. China has been holding large-scale war games in and near Taiwan for the past 1.5 years, and it frequently launches fighter jets and vessels across the Taiwan Strait.
According to the Xinhua news agency, which is under state control, Xi stated that “the complete reunification of the motherland is an irresistible trend.”
In addition, he stated that China needs to “resolutely prevent anyone from splitting Taiwan from China in any way,” advance the peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait and deepen integration between the two sides.
Although China has never explicitly denied the potential of deploying force against Taiwan, the Xinhua story made no mention of doing so. Additionally, it did not refer to Taiwan’s January 13 presidential and legislative elections.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s Lai Ching-te, the front-runner for president of Taiwan, has been called a dangerous separatist by the Chinese government, which has also turned down his requests for negotiations.
The Kuomintang (KMT), the principal opposition party in Taiwan and a party that has always supported tight links with China but denies being pro-Beijing, agrees with the DPP that the island’s people should determine their destiny.