In spite of China’s escalating threats to invade the island, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared on Saturday that reunification with Taiwan must and will take place peacefully.
On the occasion of an official celebration at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, President Xi Jinping talked mostly on the importance of the governing Communist Party of China continuing to lead the country as the country grows in strength and influence.
According to Xi, the reunification of the country must be achieved and will be achieved without a doubt. The peaceful reunification of China, including the reunification of Taiwan, is in the best interests of the Chinese people as a whole and of their Taiwanese neighbors.
Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary leader who led the Chinese revolution in 1911, was honored at the event, which commemorated the 110th anniversary of the revolution that overthrew China’s Qing dynasty and led to the formation of the Republic of China. Despite the significant contrasts between China’s authoritarian one-party system and Taiwan’s dynamic multi-party democracy, Taiwan’s National Day is celebrated on October 10th, and Xi’s speech touched on shared hopes for a united future in his speech.
A few days before, the Chinese military dispatched a record number of military planes flying towards Taiwan in drills that the self-ruled island has described as a threat to its sovereignty. A total of 149 sorties were carried out by fighter planes, bombers, and airborne early warning aircraft over the period of four days beginning last week, with the biggest maneuver involving 52 fighter jets at the same time.
When Taiwan and China were divided in 1949 due to civil war, the Nationalist Party of Taiwan fled to the island while Mao Zedong’s Communists surged to power on the mainland, the result was an uneasy peace.
Since then, Taiwan has been self-governing, but Beijing continues to deny the island’s sovereignty, refusing to rule out the possibility of employing force to retake control of the island. Beijing has also strived to isolate Taiwan internationally by barring it from affiliation in the United Nations and other international groups, as well as opposing official contacts between its government and authorities that recognize China, particularly the United States, which is legally bound to consider threats against Taipei a matter of grave concern.” Taiwanese separatism is the most significant obstacle to the motherland’s reunification, Xi said, adding that those who advocated for independence would be punished severely.”
