The commemoration of the revolution is one of the few events that unites China and Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Saturday, October 9, a “Reunification” inevitable with Taiwan by means “Peaceful”, while the island has reported in recent days a record number of military aircraft incursions from Beijing.
The Beijing strongman was speaking at the 110 commemorationse anniversary of the 1911 revolution, which overthrew the last Chinese dynasty. The event marked Saturday in Communist China, will also be celebrated the next day in Taiwan where Sun Yat-sen, the first and ephemeral Chinese president, is the father of the nation.
The island of Taiwan, which enjoys a democratic system, has been ruled by a power which has been its own since the Communists’ victory over the mainland in 1949. China, which considers this territory as one of its provinces, threatens to resort to by force in the event of a formal proclamation of independence on the island.
“A purely internal matter in China”
Despite their political and historical rivalry, both Beijing and Taipei derive their legitimacy from the 1911 revolution. In the immense People’s Palace in Beijing, with a portrait of Sun Yat-sen in the background, Xi Jinping said:
“Achieving the reunification of the homeland by peaceful means is in the general interest of the Chinese nation, including the compatriots of Taiwan (…). The reunification of our country can and will be achieved. “
“The Taiwan question is a purely internal Chinese affair”, he hammered, while Washington admitted Friday discreetly training the Taiwanese army for months. “No one should underestimate the strong determination (…) of the Chinese people to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity ”Xi warned.
The leader of the island, Tsai Ing-wen, bête noire of the Communists for her independence tendencies, is also due to give a speech on Sunday on this occasion. “Those who betray the homeland and divide the country never end well”, Xi Jinping launched in the direction of the Taiwanese separatists.
The celebrations of the events of 1911 come amid tensions in the Taiwan Strait, after the largest incursion in recent days by Chinese military planes into the island’s air defense identification zone.