Xi Jinping Tells Biden Beijing Will Reunify Taiwan With China

Xi Jinping told US President Joe Biden during an encounter on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco that mainland China would reunite with Taiwan, NBC reported, citing three incumbent and former US officials.

According to the article, the Chinese leader told the US president at a meeting attended by American and Chinese officials that Beijing favors peaceful, not forceful, reintegration of the island.

Additionally, Xi Jinping denied the claims made by the US military that China plans to "invade" Taiwan in 2025 or 2027.

Officials familiar with the content of the conversation between Biden and Xi Jinping characterized the Chinese leader as "sharp and outspoken but not confrontational," NBC wrote.

Official relations between China's central government and its island province broke down in 1949 after the defeated Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek moved to Taiwan during the civil war with the Communist Party of China.

Beijing considers Taiwan as an unalienable part of China’s sovereign territory and opposes any official contacts between the island and other countries.

The strain between mainland China and Taiwan, as well as foreign collaboration with Taiwan, intensified following a visit to the island by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in early August 2022.

China denounced Pelosi's visit, interpreting it as an endorsement of separatist movements, and responded by conducting extensive military drills near Taiwan.

Additionally, the situation has been further aggravated by the United States' frequent dispatch of warships and reconnaissance aircraft to the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has criticized these actions as provocative and labels the US as "a security risk creator in the region."