Xi Jinping warns separatists: We will not allow anyone to split China

Yesterday, the Chinese president celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen. A united nation creates benefits for all the people while a divided country opens the way to external invasions. A threat to democratic Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - "We will never allow any one, any organisation, any political party to remove a part of territory from China in any form and at any time [...] All forms of separatist activities will be resolutely opposed by the entire Chinese people. It is our solemn pledge to the people and to history never to let the country be torn apart again". This was Xi Jinping’s speech focused on "separatism" to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen yesterday.

He, founder of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), led the Chinese revolution of 1911, which ended with the fall of the Qing and the birth of the Republic of China. Xi Jinping spoke for 45 minutes in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, in the presence of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party Politburo. A united country, said the Chinese president, creates benefits for all the people, whereas a divided nation inevitably faces threats. The latter, he said, China has experienced in the last century, with the invasions of foreign countries such as Japan and the European powers.

According to several observers, the great emphasis that Xi Jinping has put the issue of separatism reveals the concern of the Party regarding the "Strait relations" with Taiwan. The island is ruled by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the pro-independence Chairman Tsai Ing-wen, who refuses to accept the principle of "one China."

Wang Weinan, an expert of the Academy of Social Sciences in Shanghai, says: "The mainland sees pro-independence sentiments becoming part of the mainstream discussion in Taiwan, and yet the counterforce, like the KMT, has become weaker with no rebound in sight soon ".

According to Wang, the Xi Jinping's speech can also be regarded as a warning against the Hong Kong separatists. On 7 November, Beijing decreed that two young localist, Sixtus Baggio and Leung Yau Wai-ching, who had refused to swear alliance with China be excluded from Hong Kong parliament.

• cHINA
• Hong kong
• Taiwan xi jinping separatism sun yat-sen kuomintang cross-strait