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His comments came days after Chinese warplanes made a record attack on the island’s democratically self-governing air defense zone last week.
Also read: Dark Eagle, US Hypersonic Missile Can Hit Mainland China in Seconds
Taiwan is self-governing and has never officially declared its independence. The island lives under constant threat of invasion by China, which views it as its territory and promises to one day seize it, by force if necessary.
“Making national reunification by peaceful means best serve the interests of the nation as a whole including our brothers and sisters in Taiwan,” Xi said in a speech marking the 110th anniversary of a revolution that ended thousands of years of imperial rule and led to the founding of a republic from China.
“Taiwan’s independence is the biggest obstacle to the reunification of the homeland and a serious hidden danger,” Xi warned.
A large portrait of Sun Yat-sen, a Western-educated doctor who led the 1911 revolution that toppled the Qing empire, towers over the stage as Xi makes a speech.
Sun founded the Republic of China, which remains the official name of Taiwan, from which defeated nationalist strongholds fled after Mao Zedong’s Communist forces won China’s civil war in 1949 and founded the People’s Republic of China.
“The complete reunification of our country will and can be realized,” Xi said, as AFP.
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