Xi Jinping says Taiwan will ‘surely’ be reunified with China

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday vowed that Taiwan will be reunited with the mainland, saying Beijing will “resolutely prevent anyone from splitting” the two sides in any way.

The comments came during a symposium in Beijing commemorating the 130th anniversary of the birth of Mao Zedong, the founding father of Communist China. In 1949, Mao led his country to defeat the Republic of China government, which then fled the mainland for Taiwan.

To this day, Beijing regards the democratically-governed island nation as part of its own territory, despite the strong objections of the government in Taipei. Over the past year and a half, China has staged multiple rounds of major war games around Taiwan and regularly sends warships and fighter jets into the Taiwan Strait.