Xi says Taiwan reunification 'must be realised' at Beijing ceremony

Chinese President Xi Jinping said the "complete reunification of the motherland must be realised, and it will certainly be realised", in a speech at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday marking the 160th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen, the revolutionary leader whose 1911 revolt ended imperial rule.

Xi said "the tide of history cannot be stopped" and that resolving the Taiwan question is an "unwavering historical mission" of the Communist Party. He restated Beijing's formula of "peaceful reunification and the policy of one country, two systems", and said China is willing to talk with Taiwan while upholding the one China principle, Beijing's position that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one country.

He called on Chinese people on both sides of the strait, including those in Taiwan, to oppose independence "separatist" forces and work for the peaceful development of cross-strait ties. He did not mention the use of force, which Beijing has never renounced for Taiwan.

Beijing views the democratically governed island as its own territory, a claim Taipei rejects, and has offered a "one country, two systems" model of autonomy that no major Taiwanese party supports, Al Jazeera reported.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council dismissed the speech. Spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh told reporters that neither the government nor the people of Taiwan could accept "one country, two systems", which he said would ultimately mean submitting to Communist Party rule. "As for the wording on Taiwan unification, it isn't much different from the past," he said, according to Al Jazeera.

The South China Morning Post reported that Xi also offered dialogue on reunification with "people of vision" from across Taiwan and pledged to accommodate the island's realities while taking a hard line against separatism.

Taiwan's defence ministry said it detected 29 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighter jets and drones, carrying out a "joint combat readiness patrol" around the island together with Chinese warships, starting on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported.

The speech came a week before the APEC summit in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, where Xi is due to meet US President Donald Trump, and a little more than two weeks before local elections in Taiwan.

Xi told Trump to show "prudence" over Taiwan during a state visit to Washington in September, Al Jazeera reported. Washington had already paused a $14bn weapons purchase by Taiwan in May, with Trump calling it "a very good negotiating chip" in dealings with China.