Chinese President Xi Jinping has said Taiwan will be fully reunified with China and that history cannot be halted, while calling for the process to be peaceful. He made the remarks in a speech at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Thursday.
Xi described resolving the Taiwan question as an “unwavering historical mission” for the Communist Party. He said the complete reunification of the motherland “must be realised” and would certainly take place. The speech marked the 160th birthday of Sun Yat-sen, the revolutionary figure who helped lead a 1911 revolt that ended centuries of imperial rule and led to the founding of the Republic of China.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s position
Taiwan’s government dismissed Xi’s remarks. Its Mainland Affairs Council said neither the government nor the Taiwanese public could accept “one country, two systems”, which it argued would ultimately mean submitting to Communist Party rule.
Council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh told reporters that the wording on unification was not much different from the past. China regards democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, despite Taipei’s firm rejection, and has repeatedly proposed the “one country, two systems” model. No major Taiwanese political party supports that model.
Xi calls for talks while opposing independence
Xi said China adheres to peaceful reunification and the “one country, two systems” policy. He added that Beijing is willing to talk with Taiwan while upholding the “one China principle”, which holds that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one country.
Xi urged all Chinese, including those in Taiwan, to jointly oppose separatist forces seeking independence and to work toward peaceful development of cross-Strait ties. He did not mention the use of force, which China has never ruled out for Taiwan. Chinese military forces nonetheless operate around the island every day and are extending their reach further into the Pacific.
Military patrol and upcoming diplomacy
Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 29 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighter jets and drones, conducting a patrol around the island alongside Chinese warships from Thursday. The ministry described the operation as a joint combat readiness patrol.
The speech came a week before the APEC summit in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese tech hub, where Xi is due to meet US President Donald Trump again. It also came just over two weeks before important local elections in Taiwan. Xi made a state visit to Washington in September, where he told Trump to show “prudence” over Taiwan and urged the US to oppose the island’s independence.
Washington had paused a $14bn weapons purchase by Taiwan in May. Trump called the pause a “very good negotiating chip” in dealings with China, a remark that raised fears Taiwan’s security could be traded away.
