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Xi: Taiwan Reunification Must HappenWorld
China’s president told a Beijing gathering that Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland cannot be stopped, drawing a swift rejection from Taipei.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping has said Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland must happen, telling a gathering in Beijing that the course of history cannot be turned back.
Mr Xi was speaking on Thursday at a meeting in the Great Hall of the People to mark the 160th birthday of Sun Yat-sen, the revolutionary leader who helped bring down China’s last imperial dynasty in 1911. He described settling the Taiwan question as an unwavering historical mission of the Communist Party.
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He said China stood by peaceful reunification and the policy of one country, two systems, and was willing to hold talks with Taiwan on the basis of the one-China principle, the position that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one country.
He made no mention of using force in his speech, although Beijing has never ruled out military action to bring the island under its control.
Taiwan’s government rejected the remarks swiftly. Its Mainland Affairs Council said neither the government nor the people of Taiwan could accept one country, two systems, arguing that it would mean submitting to rule by the Communist Party. A council spokesperson said the message was not much different from what Beijing had said in the past.
China regards the democratically governed island as its own territory, a claim Taipei firmly rejects. Beijing has repeatedly offered Taiwan a high degree of autonomy under the one country, two systems model, but no major political party on the island supports the idea.
The speech came against a background of military pressure. Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 29 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighter jets and drones, carrying out a joint combat readiness patrol around the island together with Chinese warships on Thursday.
Mr Xi’s remarks also came a week before a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Shenzhen, where he is expected to meet US President Donald Trump again, and a little more than two weeks before important local elections in Taiwan.
The dispute over Taiwan remains one of the sharpest flashpoints between China and the United States, and Beijing’s latest statement underlines that the island’s future is still at the centre of its political agenda.
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