Xi Jinping terms Taiwan's reunification with China as inevitable during new year's address

With less than two weeks to go before the Chinese-claimed island elects a new leader, President Xi Jinping struck a tougher tone than he did last year when he declared that China’s “reunification” with Taiwan is inevitable.

Amidst tense tensions between Beijing and Taipei, the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for January 13 are taking place. In an effort to bolster its claims of sovereignty over Taiwan, which is democratically governed, China has been applying more military force.

While Xi did not address military threats in his speech broadcast on state television, China views Taiwan as its “sacred territory” and has never recanted the use of force to annex the island.

Only stating that people on both sides of the strait are “members of one and the same family” and expressing his hope that they will cooperate to “jointly foster lasting prosperity of the Chinese nation” were Xi’s statements made last year.

China has taken special offence at Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Party (DPP) presidential nominee, Lai Ching-te, who is now serving as vice president and polling well in opinion polls, claiming he is a dangerous separatist.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office declared late on Saturday that Lai had “exposed his true face as a stubborn ‘worker for Taiwan independence’ and destroyer of peace across the Taiwan Strait” in response to remarks he had made earlier in the day during a live, broadcast presidential debate.

Like Lai’s primary opponent in the election, Hou Yu-ih of the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan’s major opposition party, the DPP believes that only the people of Taiwan can determine their destiny.

Though it vehemently disputes being pro-Beijing, the KMT has historically supported tight relations with China. Hou has also criticised Lai for being an advocate of independence.

The People’s Republic of China was established in 1949 by Mao Zedong’s communists, who had defeated the vanquished Republic of China government, forcing the latter to flee to Taiwan. The official name of Taiwan is still the Republic of China.

The phrase Lai and Tsai used earlier, which has also infuriated Beijing, was that the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China “are not subordinate to each other” when they made this statement on Saturday.

(With agency inputs)