China New Year's speech: Xi reaffirms claim to Taiwan
In his New Year's address, China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping emphasized the country's technological progress and at the same time reaffirmed its claim to reunification with Taiwan. "The reunification of our motherland is a trend of the times and cannot be stopped," said Xi.
31.12.2025, 14:48
SDA
At the beginning of the week, the Chinese military held large-scale maneuvers around Taiwan. Observers saw the exercises as a reaction to newly approved US arms deliveries to the island, among other things. Taiwan is democratically governed. China, on the other hand, considers the island republic to be part of its territory and threatens "reunification" by force if a peaceful solution fails.
Technological progress
In terms of foreign policy, the Chinese head of state said that China is on the right side of history and is prepared to work with all countries to promote peace and development in the world and to contribute to a fairer global order.
In the speech, which was broadcast on New Year's Eve (local time), Xi also spoke about the country's technological strengths. Several major AI models are in intense competition, he said, while there have also been breakthroughs in the development of proprietary semiconductors. Progress has also been made in humanoid robots and drone technology.
New five-year plan begins
Xi cited the launch of the Tianwen-2 space probe to explore asteroids and comets and the start of construction on a major hydropower project in Tibet as examples of further successes in the past year. In addition, China's first aircraft carrier with an electromagnetic catapult system was officially put into service.
With a view to 2026, Xi announced that he would use the start of the 15th five-year plan for further reforms, a deepening of the opening-up policy and high-quality growth.
