Context:

• Taiwan’s unification with the mainland is “inevitable”, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday, warning against any efforts to promote the island’s independence and saying China would not renounce the option of using military force to bring it into the fold.

Details:

• Taiwan replied that their people would never willingly give up the democratic freedom’s unseen on the mainland.
• Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state, with its own currency, political and judicial systems, but has never declared formal independence from the mainland.
• China still sees democratic Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified, despite the two sides being ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949. China further said that even military options could be taken if necessary, against Taiwanese separatise activities and outside forces that interfere with reunification.
• China described that unification under a “one country, two systems” approach would safeguard the interests and well-being of Taiwanese compatriots
• Relations have been strained since the 2016 election of President Tsai, who has refused to acknowledge Beijing’s stance that the island is part of “one China”.