Xi says Taiwan reunification will be realised, a week before he meets Trump at APEC

Xi did not mention the use of force in the passages reported. China has never ruled it out, and its military operates around the island daily and is extending its reach further into the Pacific. Xi used similar language in his New Year message at the end of 2025, when he called reunification a trend of the times that is unstoppable, so the wording is a repetition and not a new position. One analysis said the speech did not signal an immediate change in policy.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, the cabinet-level body that handles relations with the mainland, said that neither the government nor the people accept one country, two systems, which it said would mean submitting to Communist Party rule. Its spokesperson, Liang Wen-chieh, said the wording on unification was not much different from the past.

Taiwan's defence ministry detected 29 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighters and drones, on what Taipei called a joint combat readiness patrol with Chinese warships that began on Thursday. Taiwan holds important local elections a little more than two weeks after the speech.

What do the terms mean?

One country, two systems is the formula China applied to Hong Kong, under which a territory under Chinese sovereignty keeps its own legal and economic system. Taiwan's government and its main parties have rejected it for Taiwan, which has its own elected government and armed forces, and the Mainland Affairs Council repeated that on Thursday. The one China principle is Beijing's position that there is one China and Taiwan is part of it. Different governments interpret that phrase differently, and Taiwan's government does not accept Beijing's reading.

Sun Yat-sen is honoured on both sides of the strait as the founding figure of the Republic of China, which is why Beijing uses his anniversaries for statements about unification. Taipei, which still uses the name Republic of China, warned against events built around him.

Why the timing matters

The speech falls between two meetings of the great powers. Xi is due to meet Trump at the APEC summit in Shenzhen about a week later. In September, on a state visit to Washington, Xi told Trump to show prudence over Taiwan and urged the United States to oppose the island's independence. In May, Washington paused a $14 billion Taiwan weapons purchase, and Trump called it a very good negotiating chip in his dealings with China. Chinese officials and the US administration have also been in contact: China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, held a positive and constructive call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week.

For Taipei, the question is whether Beijing's rhetoric will be matched by pressure around the elections and the summit. For Washington, it is whether the weapons purchase that was paused stays on hold. The APEC leaders' meeting in Shenzhen takes place on 18 and 19 November, so the meeting between Xi and Trump falls within a week of the speech, and Taiwan's local elections follow in the last days of the month. Both will be watched for any change in tone, and for any word on the paused weapons purchase. Taipei's position has been steady: it says Taiwan's future is for its own people to decide and that its government and people do not accept Beijing's formula.

Neither government has said anything new on those points. What can be said from the speech is that Beijing has restated its long-term goal in the language it has used before, without a deadline and without a stated threat, while its aircraft and ships continue to patrol near the island.