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China's President Xi Jinping said Saturday "peaceful reunification" with Taiwan "will be and can be realized", days after Chinese warplanes made record incursions into the air defense zone of the democratically ruled island.
Self-governed Taiwan, which has never formally declared independence, lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which views the island as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if necessary.
"Realizing national reunification by peaceful means best serves the interests of the nation as a whole including our brethren in Taiwan," Xi said in a speech marking the 110th anniversary of a revolution that ended millennia of imperial rule and led to the founding of the Republic of China.
"Taiwan independence is the biggest obstacle to the reunification of the motherland and a serious hidden danger," Xi warned.