China will ‘surely be reunified’ with Taiwan, says Xi in New Year address

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his televised New Year address that China will ‘surely be reunified’ with Taiwan (Ju Peng/Xinhua/AP)

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said in his televised New Year address that China will “surely be reunified” with Taiwan, renewing Beijing’s threats to take over the self-ruled island, which it considers its own.

Taiwan split from China amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing continues to regard the island of 23 million people with its high-tech economy as Chinese territory and has been ramping up its threat to achieve that by military force if necessary.