Xi urges Taiwanese business lobby to back ‘one China’ principle
Letter from president urges group to help promote unity between Beijing and Taipei
President Xi Jinping urged a Taiwanese business lobby to support the “one China” principle and contribute to unity between Beijing and Taipei, state media said on Monday.
Beijing has regarded Taiwan as a renegade province to be recovered by force, if necessary, since defeated Nationalists fled there in 1949, following the loss of a civil war to the Communists.
Beijing is deeply suspicious of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who took office just over a year ago, believing she wants to push the island towards formal independence. She says she wants to maintain peace with the mainland.
The mainland welcomed Taiwanese investment, Xi told the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the Mainland in a letter on its tenth anniversary, Xinhua reported.
Xi urged the body to make “unremitting efforts to contribute to the realisation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people [and] wide unity with Taiwan compatriots [by] supporting the one China principle”, Xinhua said.