Unification is the goal, force an option, Xi Jinping warns Taiwan

BEIJING: China’s president, Xi Jinping, warned Taiwan that unification must be the ultimate goal of any talks over its future and that efforts to assert full independence could be met by armed force, laying out an unyielding position on Wednesday in his first major speech about the contested island democracy.

Xi outlined his stance one day after Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, urged China to peacefully settle disputes over the island, whose 23 million people, she said, want to preserve their self-rule. But Beijing treats Taiwan as an illegitimate breakaway from Chinese rule, and Xi said unification was unstoppable as China rose. “The country is growing strong, the nation is rejuvenating, and unification between the two sides of the strait is the great trend of history,” Xi told officials, military officers and guests in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

China would respect the Taiwanese people’s religious and legal freedoms in a unified “one country, two systems” framework, Xi said. But he warned that the profound political differences between Taiwan, a vibrant democracy, and China, a highly authoritarian government, were no excuse to reject unification.

“Different systems are not an obstacle to unification, and even less are they an excuse for separatism. The private property, religious beliefs and legitimate rights and interests of Taiwanese compatriots will be fully assured,” Xi said, calling independence for the self-governing island a dead end.

Xi also accompanied his offer of talks with a warning — one implicitly also aimed at the US, which provides Taiwan with military equipment and the possibility of support in a crisis. “We make no promise to abandon the use of force and retain the option of taking all necessary measures,” Xi said in a section of the speech that drew rousing applause. Those options, he said, could be used against “intervention by external forces.”

Taiwan’s leader rejected his call just hours later. President Tsai said her island of 23 million people would never accept the “one country, two systems” approach proposed by Beijing. The diverging positions staked out by Xi and Tsai have brought into focus how the disputed future of Taiwan remains a volatile question that could erupt into crisis, especially if either side misjudges the intentions of the other — or of the US, a key ally that has strengthened support for Taiwan.

Since coming to power in late 2012, Xi has warned Taiwan against any shift toward independence.

Xi’s speech commemorated the 40 years since China laid out a new approach to Taiwan soon after the US switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing at the start of 1979. But the U S has remained Taiwan’s most important partner, and the Trump administration has bolstered some support, to the consternation of Chinese officials. In March, President Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages official government exchanges between the US and Taiwan. And in June, the US dedicated a new $250 million unofficial embassy in Taipei.

On the last day of 2018, Trump signed into law the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, which tries to counter China’s growing military influence. The section of the law on Taiwan reiterates US commitment “to counter efforts to change the status quo and to support peaceful resolution acceptable to both sides of the Taiwan Strait.”