The “reunification” of Taiwan with China is “inevitable” Chinese leader Xi Jinping claimed in a rabble-rousing speech on Tuesday.
His tub-thumping remarks reiterated Beijing’s aggressive stance on the self-ruled island democracy ahead of a pivotal election there next month.
“The realisation of the complete reunification with the motherland is an inevitable course of development, is righteous and what the people want. The motherland must and will be reunified,” Xi said in an address marking the 130th anniversary of People’s Republic of China founder Mao Zedong’s birth.
On January 13, Taiwanese voters will choose their next president. The outcome of the race could have a major effect on relations between China and the United States, which is bound by its own laws to provide Taiwan with the weapons it needs to defend itself and to regard threats to the self-governing island as a matter of “grave concern”.
The Democratic Progressive Party, which favours the status quo of de-facto independence, is favoured to win the election, ensuring that tensions with China will likely remain high.
The main opposition Nationalist Party, or KMT;, which formerly ruled in China before being driven to Taiwan amid the Communist takeover of the mainland in 1949, formally backs political unification between the sides, a prospect most Taiwanese reject.
China appears to be signalling its frustrations over the expected result by ramping up surveillance on the self-ruled territory it claims as its own ahead of the vote in January.
Earlier this month, two Chinese balloons flew north of Taiwan, the island’s Defense Ministry said.
The balloons crossed the sensitive Taiwan Strait separating the island from China and were detected about 110 nautical miles (204 kilometers) northwest of the northern port city of Keelung on Sunday, the ministry said.
It was the second time this month Taiwan reported a Chinese balloon near its territory, after one crossed southwest of Keelung on Dec. 7.
China’s potential for using weather balloons to spy on other governments came into focus earlier this year, when the United States shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, drawing China’s ire.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry did not say whether it suspected the balloon could have been used for spying.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately comment.
Beijing has increased pressure on Taiwan by sending military aircraft and warships near the island almost daily.
Taiwan split from China amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing continues to regard the island of 23 million with its high-tech economy as Chinese territory and has been steadily upping its threat to achieve that goal by military force if necessary.
