Beijing:
President Xi Jinping said in his New Year message that no one can ever stop the reunification of Taiwan with China. He said this amid growing concerns in the country regarding the ongoing recession in the economy and the return of Donald Trump as US President. Trump has already threatened to impose punitive import tariffs and trade measures against Beijing during his second term.
- “We Chinese, living on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, are one family,” Xi said in his New Year 2025 address broadcast on state TV. No one can ever break the bond of kinship between us.
- China claims the self-ruled island of Taiwan as part of its mainland and speaks of ‘one China’, recognizing Taiwan as part of itself as an essential diplomatic policy.
- Xi, who is serving his third five-year term, has made it a major military and diplomatic initiative in recent years to step up efforts to reunite Taiwan with China.
- On the foreign policy front, Xi reiterated China’s commitment to promoting global governance reform and contributing to maintaining world peace and stability.
“In a world of both change and turmoil, China, as a responsible major country, is actively promoting global governance reform and deepening solidarity and cooperation among the ‘Global South,'” he said. ‘
Another key focus of Xi’s New Year message was to reassure the Chinese public about the economy, which has slowed significantly after COVID-19 resulted in the collapse of the lucrative real estate sector and People have lost their jobs due to the closure of businesses across the country.
Xi said that China’s economy has improved and is on the path of progress. He said that the gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to cross the 130 trillion-yuan mark (about 18.08 trillion US dollars) in 2024. He said that grain production has exceeded 700 million tons.
However, China is struggling to increase its exports of e-vehicles as the US and EU have imposed heavy tariffs on imports from it. However, the main challenge for Xi is the return of Trump. Trump, who has threatened to adopt strict policies against China, will again assume the presidency of America on January 20.
In his first term, Trump started a trade war against China by imposing import duty of more than US $ 380 billion on Chinese imports in 2018-19 and said that China was betraying America. His successor Joe Biden also continued the import duties, which has affected China’s profits.
Even during his election campaign, Trump threatened to impose tariffs of more than 60 percent on Chinese imports, which stood at US$427.2 billion last year. Sino-US relations became tense due to several policies adopted by Trump, including imposing restrictions on Chinese technology companies. He also blamed China for the Covid-19 pandemic and said that the virus originated from a bio-lab in Wuhan.
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