China and Taiwan: Xi says no one can stop ‘reunification’ [Video]

No one can stop China’s “reunification” with Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his New Year’s speech on Tuesday, laying down a clear warning to what Beijing regards as pro-independence forces within and outside of the island of 23 million people.

In the past year, Beijing has stepped up military pressure near Taiwan, sending warships and planes almost daily into the waters and air space around the island in what Taiwanese officials view as a creeping effort to “normalize” China’s military presence.

China regards democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory. But Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s claims and says only its people can decide their future and Beijing ought to respect the choice of the Taiwanese people.

“The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can sever our family bonds, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification,” Xi said in …