Xi Jinping vows China 'will inevitably be reunified' with Taiwan

Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed that his country will be reunited with Taiwan and that his people will "prevent anyone from splitting" the self-governing island from mainland China.

"Achieving the complete reunification of the motherland is the general trend, the great cause and the aspiration of the people. The motherland must be reunified and will inevitably be reunified," Xi said Tuesday about China and Taiwan during a symposium commemorating what would have been the 130th birthday of Mao Zedong, the communist revolutionary who founded modern China.

When Mao and the Chinese Communist Party seized power in 1949, defeated Chinese leader Gen. Chiang Kai-shek and his government fled to Taiwan. Since then, China has viewed Taiwan as a rogue province that it will eventually be reunited with.

Xi previously threatened to reunify China with Taiwan by force if necessary. 

"The Chinese people have a firm will, full confidence, and sufficient capabilities to resolutely prevent anyone from splitting Taiwan from China in any way," Xi said Tuesday as translated, according to an official Chinese government transcript. 

He also said that China is dedicated to building "a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, cleanness and beauty," and pledged that "no matter what level of development it reaches, China will never seek hegemony or engage in expansion."

While Xi said China wants peace, his country's actions have not appeared peaceful.

For example, China has recently been building up its military capabilities, including nuclear warheads. Over the past year, China has sent fighter jets and ships near Taiwan on several occasions in apparent shows of strength.

Internally, China has cracked down harshly on dissent and has been accused by U.S. and U.K. lawmakers of committing a genocide against its Uyghur Muslim minority.

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