China will be “surely reunited”President Xi Jinping said on Sunday, December 31, during his New Year’s speech, state media reported. “All Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common goal and share the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”declared the president, during this speech broadcast on the official channel CCTV.
During his meeting in mid-November with the President of the United States, Xi Jinping had already judged ” inevitable “ the reunification of Taiwan. China considers Taiwan as a province that it has not yet managed to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the civil war in 1949.
Beijing, which has not given up on conquering the island by force, has exerted strong military and economic pressure on Taiwan since the coming to power in 2016 of Tsai Ing-wen, from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who persists, according to China, in advocating independence. For Taipei, Beijing has increased military pressure around the island in recent months in the run-up to the presidential election in January.
A “strengthened” relationship between Beijing and Moscow
Furthermore, Chinese President Xi Jinping estimated that relations between Beijing and Moscow had strengthened in 2023, during an exchange of greetings on Sunday with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, reported Chinese state media .
Looking back on the past year with Mr. Putin, the Chinese president estimated that “the material and public bases of our relationship have become stronger”according to state channel CCTV.
“In the face of changes not seen in a century and a turbulent regional and international situation, China-Russia relations have maintained healthy and stable development and made steady progress in the right direction”Mr. Xi said.
“Under our joint leadership, the political mutual trust between the two sides has deepened, our strategic coordination has become closer, and the mutually beneficial cooperation has continued to produce new results.”he added.