China will never rule out seizing Taiwan by force, President Xi tells party congress

China will never give up the option of invasion to reunite Taiwan with the mainland, President Xi said yesterday as he launched the crucial Chinese Communist Party congress that will confirm his position as the country’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.

In a 104-minute speech to the 20th party congress, Xi promised “maximum efforts” for a peaceful reunification but insisted that the self-ruling democratic island must and would come under the sway of Beijing.

“The Taiwan problem is a matter for the Chinese people to solve, and it will be decided by the Chinese people,” Xi said. “We insist on striving for the prospect of peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and maximum efforts, but we will never promise to give up the option to use force and we reserve the right to take all necessary measures.”

Xi, 69, said to a long round of applause from the 2,340 delegates in the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing: “The historical wheels of national reunification and national rejuvenation are rolling forward, and the complete reunification of the motherland must be achieved, and it will be achieved.”

The congress began with Xi’s wide-ranging “work report” on the party’s achievements during his ten years in power, and he set out goals for the future. For the most part he restated China’s positions on Taiwan, Hong Kong and the authority of the party, and suggested that there would be no immediate change to the controversial “zero Covid” policy,

But Xi also put emphasis on resolving one of his biggest future challenges: creating a new kind of economic growth that meets the needs of business while guarding against growing inequality.

He had previously amended rules to allow himself to serve as president indefinitely, rather than being limited to two terms, opening up the possibility that he will be the first party leader since Mao to rule for life.

This bold move has met no visible dissent. As expected, the congress is a faultlessly choreographed display of unity and support for the leadership. Xi took the centre position on the rostrum, with party seniors sitting in the first row just behind him, including Hu Jintao, his immediate predecessor.

It is almost certain that Xi will break a decades-long practice by embarking on a third term as the party’s general chief when the congress concludes, cementing his position as the most powerful Chinese leader in decades, second only to Mao.

The week-long congress is also expected to amend the party constitution to formalise Xi’s “core” position among the party leadership and to enshrine “Xi Jinping thought” as one of its guiding principles.

During his speech, Xi declared that the party had achieved its goal of building a well-off society by eliminating absolute poverty and drastically improving people’s lives. “To comprehensively build a socialist, modern, strong country, there are two steps in the overall strategic arrangements,” Xi said, noting that China should “largely” realise socialist modernisation by 2035 and build “a rich, strong, democratic, civil, harmonious and beautiful, socialist, modern, strong nation” by 2050. “We have won the greatest battle against human poverty in history,” he said.

Xi called the next five years a “critical” period and laid out a broad plan, including a strengthening of the party leadership and further developing the national economy to achieve growth and wealth distribution.

The report is consistent with the party’s overall strategy and policies in recent years, Dali Yang, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, told The Times. “It was much more like an update of the party’s strategic goal, and the language is familiar,” Yang said.

Dan Macklin, a political analyst in Shanghai, agreed that Xi largely stuck to existing party positions with some slight departures. He said the work report covered not only the past five years as customary but celebrated the entire decade under Xi.

“The report sought to reinforce Xi’s image as the saviour of a party that was in crisis, and who is now the only person able to lead it going forward,” Macklin said.

The language on Taiwan, while in line with Beijing’s recent statements, was more forceful than the work report of five years ago, Macklin said. “These words may deepen concerns among foreign governments and businesses at a time when global armed conflict risks have been rising,” he said.

Yang said Xi’s statement on Taiwan was “quite measured” in tone. “While he actually received the most sustained applause [for the Taiwan remarks], he does not convey that this will be done urgently,” Yang said. “There was no timeline of that nature.”

On Taiwan, an island of more than 23 million people with its own democratically elected government, Xi said the party would “unswervingly push for the great cause of motherland unification”. He said the threat to use force only targeted “outside meddling forces, an extremely small group of Taiwan separatists and their separatist activities”.

Xi took swipes at the United States and said China would “resolutely oppose all forms of hegemony and power politics, oppose Cold War mentality, oppose interfering with other nations’ internal affairs and oppose double standards”.

China would “never seek hegemony or expansion”, he said, while promising to build a “world-class” military at an even faster pace. “We must strengthen training and combat-readiness and improve the abilities of the people’s army to win,” Xi said. “We must innovate military strategic guidance, develop the strategy and tactics of people’s wars and build a powerful strategic deterrent force system.”

In his speech, Xi reaffirmed support for the “one country, two systems” policy for Hong Kong and Macau, calling it the “best system” to ensure the long-term prosperity and stability of the territories.

Democratic activists face suppression and imprisonment after Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, but Xi insisted on his government’s “overall jurisdiction” over the former British colony and said that “patriots should govern Hong Kong”.