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President Xi Jinping reiterated in his New Year’s speech that no one can stop China‘s reunification with Taiwan.
Beijing has beefed up its military presence near Taiwan, sending warships and planes almost everyday into the waters and airspace around the self-governed island of 23 million people.
China considers Taiwan a part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the island back into its fold.
Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949, rejects Beijing’s claim saying that only its people can decide their future.
“The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family,” Mr Xi said in a speech televised on China’s state broadcaster CCTV. “No one can sever our family bonds, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification.”
His statement comes a month after China staged a massing of naval forces around Taiwan after Taiwanese president Lai Ching Te stopped over in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam during a Pacific trip criticised by Beijing.
Tensions have remained high throughout the year in the sensitive Taiwan Strait, especially after Mr Lai, deemed a “separatist” by Beijing, became the president in May 2024.
In the last week of December, the Chinese government sanctioned seven companies in response to American weapons sales and aid to Taipei.
Last year, the Chinese leader said that reunification with Taiwan was inevitable and that 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 Taiwanese president said on Wednesday he welcomes equal, dignified, healthy and orderly exchanges with China. Mr Lai said China is blocking normal interactions with restrictions on Chinese tourists visiting or students studying on the island while similar bans do not apply to Taiwanese going to China.
“But I still want to stress this: Taiwan hopes to have healthy and orderly exchanges with China under the principles of reciprocity and dignity,” he said.
Reporters should ask China why its citizens can freely travel to countries like the US and Japan but have all these controls when it comes to Taiwan, Mr Lai said. “Is this really showing goodwill towards Taiwan? Can’t they treat everyone equally?”
