Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged the Communist Party and its members to encourage and cultivate ‘patriotic forces’ as well as supporters in Taiwan, Hong Kong and other overseas states where China wants to assert its dominance, while US House speaker Nancy Pelosi goes back and forth on her decision to visit Taiwan during her Asia-Pacific visit.
Snippets of the speech released by the Chinese state media showed that Xi batted on the front foot and explicitly asked his party workers to expand China’s strength.
“We must strengthen the building of overseas patriotic forces, cultivate and expand the strength of those who know China and are willing to befriend China, and promote exchanges and mutual learning of Chinese and foreign cultures and civilisations,” said Xi.
The Chinese President further heaped praise on his United Front army and illustrated its importance.
“The United Front is becoming more important in safeguarding [China’s] national sovereignty, security and development interests. In building an all-round modern socialist country and realising the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the role of the United Front … is even more important.”
In the past, the United Front has been described by Xi Jinping as his secret ‘magic weapon’. The operations of most of the members in the United Front are covert and spread beyond the middle kingdom. This year marks the 100th anniversary of China’s United Front.
Why is Xi taking such an aggressive stance?
As reported extensively by WION, last week, Xi spoke to US President Joe Biden and in clear and concise terms made it clear that Taiwan was an integral part of China.
Soon, the White House toed Xi’s line by releasing a statement, “On Taiwan, President Biden underscored that the United States policy has not changed and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Moreover, Nancy Pelosi released an official statement where her trip to Taiwan was unconfirmed. Pelosi’s office said: “The trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region” without mentioning Taiwan.