China's Xi Jinping ends 2024 with a threat to Taiwan

Chinese President Xi Jinping ended the year threatening Taiwan, saying “no one can prevent reunification” with China. He said this while addressing the nation on New Year's Eve. Beijing has long declared that the entire Taiwan nation is part of China. He has also demonstrated an open and muscular attitude by conducting military and naval exercises around the island nation.

Beijing and Taipei represent two diametrically opposed lifestyles. If Taiwan is a democracy, China is a communist country. In recent times, Beijing has stepped up pressure on Taipei and made every effort to isolate the island nation from the rest of the world.

China has also conducted three rounds of major military exercises since Taiwan's democratic election that saw President Lai Ching-te take power in May. Angered by the latest elections, Beijing said it would not renounce the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. The latest of these military exercises, conducted earlier this month, was the largest in years according to Taiwanese officials, although Beijing has remained silent on the maneuvers. China has also repeatedly violated Taiwan's airspace.

In his New Year speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping said: “Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can break our blood ties, and no one can stop the historical trend towards the reunification of the homeland. President Xi's comments come at a crucial time: just three weeks before Donald Trump takes office as President of the United States.

Taiwan is a key point of contention between Beijing and Washington. Taiwan is the United States' strategic ally in Asia, and Washington is also Taipei's largest arms supplier. Defending democracy against communism was also a principled decision by the United States – the Cold War with Russia was based entirely on this principled position.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHINA AND TAIWAN

China and Taiwan are separated by the Taiwan Strait, a waterway that connects the South China Sea to the East China Sea between the two nations.

Before the Communist Revolution, led by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, China was, for a brief period, a democratic nation. There were three presidents in what was then known as the Republic of China (now the official name of Taiwan). The Republic of China became a sovereign nation in 1912 after the fall of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. This ended China's imperial history.

Between 1912 and 1949, China experienced four governments: the provisional or interim government in 1912, the Beiyang government from 1912 to 1928, led by the army; the nationalist government from 1925 to 1948 led by the Kuomintang; and Constitutional Government from 1948 to 1949. The constitutional government was overthrown by the civil war in China. The Communist Party, led by Chairman Mao, overthrew the government in a crushing revolution, which later spread to Tibet and Xinjiang. The constitutional government had to flee to Taiwan.

Between the mid-1920s and late 1930s, the Kuomintang had unified what was originally China (minus the currently occupied nation of Tibet and then parts of Xinjiang). [part of East Turkestan Republic] to the west and Soviet-controlled Manchuria to the east – a region separating the rest of Russia and Mongolia from what is now North Korea). The Russo-Japanese War saw Russia cede southern Manchuria to Japan in 1905, and decades later, in 1931, Japan retook all of Manchuria. Subsequently, during World War II, Japan invaded China.

The Kuomintang was led by Chiang Kai-shek, who was elected president of the Republic of China until Mao Zedong's revolution forced him and his Kuomintang party to flee to Taiwan in 1948 and implement established a government in exile in 1949. The United Nations recognized the government of Chiang Kai-shek as the legitimate government of China until 1971. It is the Republic of China (Taiwan) of Chiang Kai-shek who initially obtained a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Advice.

Taiwan is a democracy today, but many countries around the world do not maintain diplomatic relations with it due to pressure from the People's Republic of China, ruled since 1949 by Chairman Mao's party, currently led by Xi Jinping.