'No one can stop our reunification': Xi warns Taiwan in New Year speech

Chinese President Xi Jinping ended 2024 with a warning to the island nation of Taiwan that “no one can stop its reunification with China”.

In a speech televised on China’s state broadcaster CCTV on New Year’s eve, President Xi said, “The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can sever our family bonds, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification.”

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China has for a long time insisted that Taiwan is part of China and has kept applying pressure on the island of 23 million residents.

Increased pressure on Taiwan in 2024

Xi Jinping has been more aggressive during his tenure as president, and the past year has seen Beijing stepping up its pressure tactics. China has invaded Taiwan’s air space with its planes and its waters with its warships on a regular basis during 2024. Taiwanese officials consider this as a strategy by its big neighbour to “normalise” its military presence in the region.

The tensions between the two countries have increased after the election of Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-Te in May last year, whom China calls a “separatist”. China has made it clear that it does not rule out the use of force to take control of Taiwan.

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Taiwan is a democratic nation, while China is a communist country where the party’s fiat is final. China considers Taiwan as its own territory, while the Taiwanese say its people are supreme and they are the ones who decide the island’s future.

Taiwan and the rest of the world

China, over the years, has done its best to isolate Taiwan from the rest of the world by putting pressure on other countries not to have diplomatic ties with it.

The United States, however, has consciously defied China’s wishes by making Taiwan its strategic ally in Asia. The US is the largest supplier of weapons to Taiwan. This is in consonance with the Americans’ long-standing principle of supporting democracy and preventing the spread of communism.

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China became a republic in 1912 after the fall of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. The sovereign nation then had four governments between 1912 and 1949. In 1949, the constitutional government was overthrown by the civil war in China, and the Communist Party, led by Chairman Mao, seized power. The constitutional government fled to Taiwan, and the island nation called itself the Republic of China.