'Reunification With Taiwan Inevitable': Chinese Prez Xi Jinping In New Year's Eve Address

China has been intensifying military pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over Taiwan, which is governed democratically.

File photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping

Source : @China_Amb_India

New Delhi: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday said that China's "reunification" with Taiwan is inevitable, 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.

The presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for January 13 are taking place amid tense relations between Beijing and Taipei, reported Reuters.

China has been intensifying military pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over Taiwan, which is governed democratically.

According to Reuters, 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.

In his New Year's Eve address, Xi said, "The reunification of the motherland is a historical inevitability."

However, 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. The official English translation wrote "all Chinese" rather than "compatriots".

Last year, Xi said only that people on either side of the strait are "members of one and the same family" and that he hoped people on both sides would work together to "jointly foster lasting prosperity of the Chinese nation".

The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists who founded the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China remains Taiwan's formal name.