China's Xi says outside interference cannot prevent reunion with Taiwan | Xi Jinping News

During his meeting with the former Taiwanese president, Xi Jinping highlighted the historical trend of reuniting the country and the family.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and said outside influence cannot prevent family reunification between Beijing and Taipei.

Xi emphasized dialogue between the two sides during his meeting with Ma on Wednesday, saying all issues could be discussed, Reuters news agency reported.

External interference cannot stop the historic trend of reuniting the country and the family, Xi said, in remarks reported by Taiwanese media.

Beijing considers the autonomous island as a province that must be reunified with mainland China and does not rule out using force to assert its claims on Taiwan.

Taiwan cut contact with mainland China and established its own government in 1949 after Nationalist forces who lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists fled there.

Officially known as the Republic of China, Taiwan quickly became an economic powerhouse and an ally of the United States in the following years. Today it is one of the largest producers of semiconductors, a key component of electronic devices around the world.

No sitting Taiwanese president has ever visited China. Ma is now on his second trip to China after becoming the first former Taiwanese president to visit the country last year.

This visit comes against a backdrop of growing tensions in the Taiwan Strait. On Wednesday, Xi declared that both sides of the strait were Chinese.

There are no grudges that cannot be resolved, no issues that cannot be discussed and no forces that can separate us, the Chinese president was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Xi had previously said the unification of China and Taiwan was inevitable.

But Western countries have warned China against a possible invasion of Taiwan, and U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington would defend the island militarily if it was attacked.

China has conducted military exercises near Taiwan in recent years, including in 2022 in response to a visit to the island by then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.

Ma told Xi on Wednesday that the tensions had caused unease among many Taiwanese.

If there is a war between the two sides, it will be unbearable for the Chinese people, Ma said, using a term that refers to people of Chinese ethnic origin in both countries.

Chinese people on both sides of the Strait absolutely have enough wisdom to handle all disputes peacefully and avoid descending into conflict.

In response to the discussions, the Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council said it deeply regretted that Ma had not publicly expressed the Taiwanese people's insistence on defending the sovereignty and democratic system of the Republic of China.

He added that Beijing should stop bullying Taipei and resolve its differences with Taiwan through respectful dialogue.

Ma, who served as Taiwan's president from 2008 to 2016, remains a prominent member of Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT).

In January, Vice President Lai Ching-te, seen by Beijing as a dangerous separatist, won elections in Taiwan. He will succeed current President Tsai Ing-wen in May.

Biden and Xi had a phone call earlier this month for the first time since November.

The call will be an opportunity for the president to reaffirm the US one-China policy and reiterate the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, particularly in the run-up to the presidential inauguration in Taiwan in May, a U.S. official told reporters on condition of anonymity. week.

Washington pursues a one-China policy that does not recognize Taiwan as an official country despite its close ties to its government.