Chinese president Xi Jinping recently vowed a reunification with Taiwan amid rising tensions, contradicting his last major speech in July this year where he pledged that China would “smash'' any attempts at formal independence in Taiwan.
Taiwan responded shortly after by calling on Beijing to abandon its coercion, reiterating that only Taiwan’s people will decide their future.
From the first of this month China’s air force mounted four straight days of incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone involving close to 150 aircraft, though those missions have since ended.
The president used his speech to underscore that the Chinese Communist Party is the “best and strongest force to lead Taiwan”, which was not received well by the Taiwanese people.