CHINA - Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping called “the complete reunification of the motherland” – by which he meant the annexation of Taiwan and solidification of control over Hong Kong and Macau – “inevitable” and vowed to “unite all Chinese sons and daughters” on Tuesday.
Xi spoke at China’s largest ever military parade, featuring 100,000 performers, to observe the 70th anniversary of the re-founding of China as a communist state. While Xi spoke in Beijing, thousands took the streets in Hong Kong for a “day of mourning” in observance of the victims of communism – 45 million under Mao Zedong alone – and most in Taiwan shrugged at the idea that they had a place in the festivities.
Taiwan is a sovereign nation and was established as the Republic of China following Mao’s ascent to the leadership of China. It has never been under communist rule by Beijing. Xi’s dictatorship views Taiwan as a rogue province and refuses any diplomatic ties to states that accept the reality of Taiwan’s sovereignty. The United States does not acknowledge Taiwan as a state to maintain ties to the Communist Party. Xi insisted in his speech Tuesday that the era where Taiwan asserts itself as a fully functional state will soon come to an end.