Xi Jinping calls for unity during Sun Yat-sen anniversary

Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the issue of country unity at a gathering to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Sun Yat-sen’s birth on Friday, which experts said showed the determination of the Chinese mainland on solving the cross-Straits issue.

“Sun Yat-sen unequivocally opposed any remarks or actions that attempted to split the country or the nation,” Xi said in his speech quoting Sun who said that “united, the people of the entire country benefit; disunited, people suffer,” the Xinhua News Agency reported.

“Any attempt to split the country will be resolutely opposed by all Chinese people,” Xi said, vowing “we’ll never allow anyone, any organization or political party to rip out any part of our territory at any time or in any form.”

“The best way we commemorate Sun Yat-sen is to learn from and carry forward his invaluable spirit, to unite all that can be united and mobilize all that can be mobilized to carry on the pursuit for a rejuvenated China that he had dreamed of,” Xi said, according to Xinhua.

Born in 1866, Sun was the founder of the Kuomintang Party, and was a revered revolutionary leader who played a pivotal role in overthrowing imperial rule in China.

“The gathering is not only to commemorate Sun Yat-sen’s thoughts, but also showed the determination and faith on the peaceful reunification of the country to people in Taiwan and overseas,” Lü Cuncheng, a Beijing-based Taiwan studies expert, told the Global Times on Friday.

Li Songling, a professor from Capital Normal University in Beijing, said that the cross-Straits relations are an uncertainty, but the Chinese mainland has been signaling Taiwan that it is impossible for Taiwan to concern itself with only economics, but ignore politics.