China's President Xi Jinping ratcheted up tensions over Taiwan Tuesday (March 20) with a speech to the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing that warned that any scheme to "split" China would be "punished by history."
Xi's comments came as part of a speech that underlined the Communist Party leader's grip on power following his successful bid to change the country's constitution and abolish term limits on the offices of president, potentially paving the way for him to rule for life.
“All acts and schemes to split China are doomed to failure and will be condemned by the people and punished by history,” Xi said in an address to the NPC's closing session, adding that the Chinese people have the will, confidence and ability to defeat attempts to split the country.
The comments closely followed a series of rebukes from Chinese officials after U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act (TTA) on Friday, which details provisions for Taiwan and the U.S. to conduct Cabinet-level diplomatic exchanges on each other's soil.
China's embassy in Washington reacted to the signing of the Act by saying that it was "strongly dissatisfied" and warned that it would hurt bilateral relations at a time when Trump is attempting to push Beijing on trade via the imposition of tariffs designed to punish China for theft of U.S. intellectual property. China's foreign ministry up by saying that the law violates the "one China" principle, while urging the U.S. to cease escalating its ties with Taiwan.
Analysts have said the TTA, which constitutes a non-binding agreement, is largely symbolic as the U.S. already has the capability to conduct such visits, most notably in the case of former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's visit to Cornell University, his alma mater, in 1995, which precipitated the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis.
Read next: Two Years in Jail for Calling Xi Jinping a ‘Steamed Bun’
Editor: Morley J Wesotn
