Chinese leader: Reunification with Taiwan - inevitable

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that China’s “reunification” with Taiwan is inevitable.

President Xi made these remarks in his New Year’s address on December 31, striking a stronger tone than he did last year with less than two weeks to go before the Chinese-claimed island elects a new leader, according to France 24.

The January 13 presidential and parliamentary elections are happening at a time of fraught relations between Beijing and Taipei. China has been ramping up military pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over democratically governed Taiwan.

China considers Taiwan to be its “sacred territory” and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Chinese control, though Xi made no mention of military threats in his speech carried on state television.

“The reunification of the motherland is a historical inevitability,” Xi said, though the official English translation of his remarks published by the Xinhua news agency used a more simple phrase: “China will surely be reunified”.

“Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” he added.