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China's Xi Says 'Reunification' with Taiwan is Inevitable

FILE PHOTO: Chinese officials, led by President Xi Jinping, attend a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing, China, December 20, 2023. Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Chinese officials, led by President Xi Jinping, attend a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing, China, December 20, 2023. Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via REUTERS
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China's Xi Says 'Reunification' with Taiwan is Inevitable

FILE PHOTO: Chinese officials, led by President Xi Jinping, attend a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing, China, December 20, 2023. Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Chinese officials, led by President Xi Jinping, attend a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing, China, December 20, 2023. Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via REUTERS

China's "reunification" with Taiwan is inevitable, President Xi Jinping said in his New Year's address on Sunday, striking a stronger tone than he did last year with less than two weeks to go before the Chinese-claimed island elects a new leader.
The Jan. 13 presidential and parliamentary elections are happening at a time of fraught relations between Beijing and Taipei. China has been ramping up military pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over democratically governed Taiwan.
China considers Taiwan to be its "sacred territory" and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Chinese control, though Xi made no mention of military threats in his speech carried on state television.
"The reunification of the motherland is a historical inevitability," Xi said, though the official English translation of his remarks published by the Xinhua news agency used a more simple phrase: "China will surely be reunified".
"Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," he added. The official English translation wrote "all Chinese" rather than "compatriots", Reuters reported.
Last year, Xi said only that people on either side of the strait are "members of one and the same family" and that he hoped people on both sides will work together to "jointly foster lasting prosperity of the Chinese nation".
China has taken particular exception to current Vice President Lai Ching-te, the presidential candidate for Taiwan's ruling Democratic Party (DPP) and leading in opinion polls by varying margins, saying he is a dangerous separatist.
Responding late on Saturday to Lai's comments at a live televised presidential debate earlier in the day, China's Taiwan Affairs Office said Lai had "exposed his true face as a stubborn 'worker for Taiwan independence' and destroyer of peace across the Taiwan Strait".
"His words were full of confrontational thinking," spokesperson Chen Binhua said in a statement.
Since 2016 - when President Tsai Ing-wen took office - the DPP-led government has promoted separatism and is the "criminal mastermind" in obstructing exchanges across the strait and damaging the interests of Taiwan's people, Chen said.
"As the leading figure of the DPP authorities and current DPP chairman, Lai Ching-te cannot escape his responsibility for this," he added.

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UN Chief and Pope Call for Nations to End the Use of Antipersonnel Land Mines

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 21 November 2024. (EPA)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 21 November 2024. (EPA)
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UN Chief and Pope Call for Nations to End the Use of Antipersonnel Land Mines

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 21 November 2024. (EPA)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 21 November 2024. (EPA)

The UN head, Pope Francis and others called Monday for nations to end the production and use of land mines, even as their deployment globally grows.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message to delegates at the fifth review of the International Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention, that 25 years after it went into force some parties had renewed the use of antipersonnel mines and some are falling behind in their commitments to destroy the weapons.

“I call on states parties to meet their obligations and ensure compliance to the convention, while addressing humanitarian and developmental impacts through financial and technical support,” Guterres said at the opening of the conference in Cambodia.

“I also encourage all states that have not yet acceded to the convention to join the 164 that have done so. A world without anti-personnel mines is not just possible. It is within reach.”

In a statement read on behalf of Pope Francis, his deputy Cardinal Pietro Parolin said that antipersonnel land mines and victim-activated explosive devices continue to be used. Even after many years of hostilities, “these treacherous devices continue to cause terrible suffering to civilians, especially children.”

“Pope Francis urges all states that have not yet done so to accede to the convention, and in the meantime to cease immediately the production and use of land mines,” he said.

The treaty was signed in 1997 and went into force in 1999, but nearly three dozen countries have not acceded to it, including some key current and past producers and users of land mines such as the United States, China, India, Pakistan, South Korea and Russia.

In a report released last week by Landmine Monitor, the international watchdog said land mines were still actively being used in 2023 and 2024 by Russia, Myanmar, Iran and North Korea. It added that non-state armed groups in at least five places — Colombia, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and the Gaza Strip — had used mines as well, and there were claims of their use in more than a half dozen countries in or bordering the Sahel region of Africa.

At least 5,757 people were killed and wounded by land mines and unexploded ordnance last year, primarily civilians of whom a third were children, Landmine Monitor reported.

Landmine Monitor said Russia had been using antipersonnel mines “extensively” in Ukraine, and just a week ago, the US, which has been providing Ukraine with anti-tank mines throughout the war, announced it would start providing Kyiv with antipersonnel mines as well to try and stall Russian progress on the battlefield.

“Antipersonnel mines represent a clear and present danger for civilians,” Guterres said in his statement. “Even after fighting stops, these horrifying and indiscriminate weapons can remain, trapping generations of people in fear.”

He praised Cambodia for its massive demining efforts and for sharing its experience with others and contributing to UN peacekeeping missions.

Cambodia was one of the world's most mine-affected countries after three decades of war and disorder that ended in 1998, with some 4 million to 6 million mines or unexploded munitions littering the country.

Its efforts to rid the country of mines has been enormous, and Landmine Monitor said Cambodia and Croatia accounted for 75% of all land cleared of mines in 2023, with more than 200 square kilometers (80 square miles).

Prime Minister Hun Manet joined the calls for more nations to join the Mine Ban Treaty, and thanked the international community for supporting Cambodia's mine clearance efforts. He said they have reduced land mine casualties from more than 4,300 in 1996 to fewer than 100 annually over the last decade.

“Cambodia has turned its tragic history into a powerful lesson for the world, advocating against the use of anti-personnel mines and highlighting their long-term consequences,” he said.