Photo: CFP

Prolonged applause rose in Beijing's Tiananmen Square after General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping expressed steel-like determination and confidence in reunification, as part of his speech at a grand ceremony to mark the centennial of the Party.

"Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakable commitment of the CPC," Xi, also the Chinese president and the chairman of the Central Military Commission, said on Thursday morning.  

"All of us, compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, must come together and move forward in unison. We must take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward 'Taiwan independence,' and work together to create a bright future for national rejuvenation," Xi said.  

No one should underestimate the resolve, will and ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Xi said. 

Observers said that the "declaration of reunification" was the moment when the applause was the loudest, pushing the atmosphere to the warmest, showing the great public support for reunification. The applause lasted for about 23 seconds, media reported. 

Xi's remarks on the Taiwan question quickly trended on social media platforms, with more than 540 million reads and 145,000 comments on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo as of press time. Many internet users expressed a strong desire for the early realization of the inevitable trend of national reunification.

After the great achievements in national construction made under CPC's leadership, a top concern of the Chinese people is, of course, when the Party will achieve the complete reunification of China, Wang Jianmin, a senior cross-Straits expert at Minnan Normal University, East China's Fujian Province, told the Global Times on Thursday.

President Xi's speech shows that reunification is on the agenda and "we are already in the historic process," Wang said.  

Shaw Chong-hai, former head of the School of Social Sciences at the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan, told the Global Times on Thursday that although Xi's remark about cross-Straits relations was brief, it was a warning signal to Taiwan's secessionists' authority.  

Xi stressed that "we will uphold the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, and advance peaceful national reunification." Regarding this, Shaw said the recognition that both Taiwan and the Chinese mainland belong to one and the same China is crucial to the peace and stability of cross-Straits relations.  

Xi's emphasis on peaceful reunification shows the CPC's utmost sincerity and best wishes on the Taiwan question. But the mainland also has a powerful military as an option to deal with any contingency," Wang said. 

That is a CPC tradition. Back to the 1940s, despite the Kuomintang breaking the peace agreement and starting a civil war with the CPC, the Party still stressed a peaceful resolution, but it also prepared for military confrontation. 

The international environment today is undergoing great changes. External forces and anti-China forces are all using the Taiwan card to contain China, making the resolution of the Taiwan question more and more urgent in the process of great rejuvenation.  

Experts said that no matter how the secessionists on Taiwan island conduct political manipulation and collude with external forces, the CPC will gradually push for reunification at its own strategy and pace.

"There is no exact timetable for reunification, which is a dynamic process. If an incident between Taiwan secessionists and external forces triggers the Anti-Secession Law tomorrow, it may happen tomorrow," Wang said.