China, Xi Jinping: Taiwan will come back to us even by force. Ovation at the CPC Congress

President Xi Jinping opened the Chinese Communist Party congress with a keynote address lasting about an hour and forty minutes and addressed to about 2,300 delegates at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The president called for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the expansion of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.

Xi spoke of the country’s GDP, which has doubled in ten years and is now equal to “18.5% of the world economy”, about how China has handled the Covid pandemic, putting “people’s lives first” and ” launching a people’s war”. against the virus”. But he also spoke of Taiwan, underlining China’s great “capacity” against “Taiwan independence” and promising “the reunification of the motherland.” This was a passage that stole the ovation of the delegates.

Xi Jinping warns that Taiwan’s “reunification” with China will take place. “It must be achieved and will be achieved”, and warns that it does not intend to renounce the use of force and reserves the right to use “all means” for reunification. “The Taiwan issue must be resolved by the Chinese,” Xi said. “We will continue to fight for peaceful reunification, but we will never promise to give up force and reserve the right to use all means” for reunification, Xi added.

The centerpiece of the party’s congress, held every five years, is the expansion of power by the 69-year-old Xi, who seeks to secure another term as party general secretary. Delegates, who almost never disagree with the Communist Party’s Politburo, must enshrine Xi’s personal ideology in the party’s constitution and select a new central committee. After deliberations, which last a week, the party leader must be confirmed for an unprecedented third term of five years in a plenary session of the new Central Committee. Xi is setting a precedent by ignoring term limits, while age rules and term limits will apply to the Politburo, the Chinese Communist Party’s supreme political body. The personnel change in the Communist leadership is also a prelude to the Chinese government’s next annual meeting, scheduled for March, when a new prime minister will be chosen and a new government formed.