Xi urges Taiwan business lobby to back ‘one China’ principle

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping urged a business lobby for Taiwan enterprises on the mainland to support the “one China” principle and contribute to unity between Beijing and Taipei, state media said on Wednesday.

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be recovered by force if necessary, after defeated Nationalists fled there in 1949, following the loss of a civil war to the Communists.

Beijing remains deeply suspicious of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who took office just over a year ago, believing she wants to push the island toward formal independence. She says she wants to maintain peace with China.

China welcomes Taiwanese investment in a letter on its tenth anniversary, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Xi urged the body to make unremitting efforts to contribute to the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people (and) wide unity with Taiwan compatriots (by) supporting the one China principle,  Xinhua said.

“Both sides of the Strait share an inseparable common destiny,” Xi said in the letter, read to a meeting of around 400 Taiwanese in Beijing by Zhang Zhijun, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, the news agency said. (Reuters)