The Chinese president continues to pose the threat of a “reunification” of China on Taiwan, an island over which Beijing claims sovereignty.
China will “surely be reunified”, 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,” the official Xinhua news agency said.
American aid
China considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces that it has not yet managed to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
She says she favors “peaceful reunification” with the territory, today governed by a democratic system, but she has never given up using military force to achieve this. In 2022, Beijing conducted large military exercises around the island.
In mid-December, the US State Department approved a sale of military equipment worth $300 million (275 million euros) to help Taiwan defend itself.
A “stronger” relationship with Moscow
During an exchange of greetings on Sunday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping also estimated that relations between Beijing and Moscow had strengthened in 2023.
Looking back on the past year with Vladimir Putin, the Chinese president estimated that “the material bases and in public opinion of our relationship have become stronger”, according to the 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 progressed steadily in the right direction,” Xi Jinping said.
“Under our joint leadership, political mutual trust between the two sides has deepened, our strategic coordination has been strengthened, and mutually beneficial cooperation has continued to produce new results,” he said.