Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said the island’s 23 million residents should have the deciding role in shaping its future, after Chinese President Xi Jinping renewed Beijing’s call for reunification.
Xi spoke at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Nov. 12 during a ceremony that China’s government described as marking the 160th anniversary of Sun Yat-sen’s birth. The State Council’s English account said Xi presented reunification as an ongoing objective for the Communist Party of China and called for “complete reunification.”
Xi also offered talks based on the “one-China principle” and “1992 Consensus,” according to the account, while saying Beijing would not accept Taiwan independence.
The MAC described Sun Yat-sen as the founder of the Republic of China (ROC), which it said remains in existence. The council added that neither the ROC nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is subordinate to the other.
The council also said the PRC had never governed Taiwan and rejected Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula. It argued that Taiwan’s 23 million residents should shape the island’s future within the ROC’s democratic constitutional framework, and called on Beijing to respect Taiwan’s democratic system.
Xi stressed national unity and portrayed the Communist Party as carrying forward Sun’s revolutionary project. The MAC urged Beijing to consider Sun’s democratic principles and popular sovereignty. The State Council account places Sun’s birth in 1866 and says he led the 1911 uprising that ended China’s monarchy.
China said the Nov. 12 ceremony marked the 160th anniversary of Sun’s birth. Focus Taiwan reported that Taiwan’s government observed his 160th anniversary in 2025 and regards 2026 as the 161st under a traditional count that treats the birth year as the first.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ meeting is scheduled for Shenzhen on Nov. 18-19. Reuters reported that Xi is expected to meet Trump there. The summit is also the focus of earlier EconoTimes coverage of China’s trade and digital agenda.
