A large outdoor screen shows China's president Xi Jinping delivering a speech ahead of the New Year's Eve celebrations in Beijing. Photograph: Wang Zhao/AFP/GettyChina’s president Xi Jinping has vowed to reunify China and Taiwan in his annual New Year’s Eve speech in Beijing. US intelligence is increasingly concerned about the advancing capabilities of China’s armed forces to launch such an attack if Mr Xi decides the time is right. Soldiers march during a military parade in Tiananmen Square on September 3rd last in Beijing, China. In his speech, Mr Xi also highlighted “Taiwan Retrocession Day”, a memorial day created in 2025 to mark the anniversary of the end of Japanese imperial rule in Taiwan in 1945.

Source: The Irish Times January 01, 2026 01:41 UTC