Asia-PacificAnalysis

Xi sounds a warning on Taiwan as he bids to consolidate power

President restates policy of pursuing reunification by peaceful means, but says China would not rule out force

Chinese president Xi Jinping is applauded by senior members of the government and delegates as he stands before his speech during the opening ceremony of the 20th national congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of People in Beijing. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Chinese president Xi Jinping is applauded by senior members of the government and delegates as he stands before his speech during the opening ceremony of the 20th national congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of People in Beijing. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Denis Staunton's picture
Denis Staunton in Beijing
Sun Oct 16 2022 - 17:00

Xi Jinping looked relaxed on Sunday as he waved at more than 2,300 Chinese Communist Party delegates as they clapped him on to the stage of the Great Hall of the People on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. But in a speech lasting a little less than two hours, he warned that China must be prepared for “strong winds and high waves and even dangerous storms” amid drastic changes in the international landscape.

The atmosphere has already become more turbulent in recent weeks as president Joe Biden has appeared to abandon the United States’s strategic ambiguity about how it would respond if Beijing attacks Taiwan. Biden has stated four times in recent weeks that the US would defend Taiwan, a major rhetorical shift that was followed this month by an effective export ban on advanced semiconductor technology to China.

Chinese president Xi Jinping said it was up to Chinese people to resolve the current disputes with Taiwan, and China would not renounce the right to use force. (Reuters)

Xi restated China’s policy of pursuing reunification with Taiwan by peaceful means, but said Beijing would never rule out the use of force. And elsewhere in his speech he spoke about making the Chinese military more combat-ready and to continue to modernise its organisation and technology.

Despite the recent cooling of relations with the collective West over Beijing’s position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Xi said that China’s influence in the world had grown. And he said that China would “win the battle in key core technologies” and speed up innovation in areas vital to technological self-reliance.

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China’s pursuit of self-reliance in essential technology and supply chains mirrors similar drives in the EU and the United States. But China is also engaged in a massive effort to reduce inequality with a programme of “common prosperity” that Xi reaffirmed on Sunday.

This has seen Chinese authorities clip the wings of big technology companies and seek to deflate a property bubble, while banning private tuition that gave the children of better-off parents an educational advantage. Xi promised an expansion of China’s social welfare system and more help for those who are unemployed.

His defence of China’s zero-Covid policy suggests, however, that there will be no swift removal of the system of testing, tracing and isolation that has had a dampening effect on the economy. And his repeated invocation of the need for greater security and his emphasis on the leading role of the Communist Party made clear that Xi is determined to consolidate power and tighten control as he prepares for a likely third five-year term as China’s leader.