Taiwan Pushes Back After Xi Jinping Vows 'Reunification'

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the office that handles relations with the Chinese Communist government in Beijing, pushed back Thursday against Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vow to regain control of Taiwan.

Xi gave a boastful, at times belligerent, speech to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) founding on Thursday. Xi threatened violence against nations that try to “coerce and enslave” China by interfering with anything it deems an internal affair.

“Whoever attempts to do that, will surely break their heads on the steel Great Wall built with the blood and flesh of 1.4 billion of Chinese people,” Xi said.

One of those internal affairs is “resolving the Taiwan question.” Xi said “realizing China’s complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakeable commitment” of the Communist Party and a “shared aspiration of all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation.”

Xi explicitly called on Beijing loyalists living in Taiwan to “take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt towards ‘Taiwan independence.’”

“No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Xi said to thunderous applause from his Beijing audience.

Taiwan’s MAC responded to Xi’s speech with a call for “peace, equality, democracy, and dialogue.”

“Beijing should introduce democratic reforms, such as party competition, and respect for human rights while behaving as a responsible regional player,” the MAC said in a statement Thursday.

The MAC called on the Communist Party to “abandon its coercive propositions and bullying actions, and truly become a responsible party committed to regional peace.”

“Since the CCP took power, its one-party dictatorship has clamped down on people’s democracy and violated human rights and freedoms. They have become more and more dictatorial at home … while trying to interfere with the international order overseas,” the Taiwanese office noted.

“Democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law are the core values of Taiwanese society,” the MAC said, declaring that Taiwan’s determination to “firm defend national sovereignty” along with its democracy and freedoms “remains unchanged.”