President Xi Jinping proclaimed on Sunday that Taiwan’s status should be “settled by Chinese people”. Yet he faces a tricky balancing act managing public opinion among China’s 1.4 billion people on an issue that looks set to dominate his third term.
Xi’s vow that China can realise unification with Taiwan “without a doubt” got some of the loudest applause from the 2,400 delegates who watched his speech at the Communist Party congress in Beijing. The response reflected growing nationalistic fervour toward taking over the self-ruled island that Beijing considers its own territory.
