Ready for next chapter President Xi Jinping delivers his New Year speech on Monday in his office in Beijing. He said joint efforts are needed as China faces opportunities and challenges alike in 2019. China Daily

China must be and will be reunified, President Xi Jinping said Wednesday.

“It is a historical conclusion drawn over the 70 years of the development of cross-Strait relations, and a must for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in the new era,” he added.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks Wednesday at a gathering to commemorate the 40th anniversary of issuing Message to Compatriots in Taiwan.

He called on Chinese people across the Taiwan Strait as well as at home and abroad to work together for the Chinese nation’s greater good and go with the tide of history, to jointly push forward the peaceful development of the cross-Strait relations and advance the process toward the peaceful reunification of China.

The Chinese people’s affairs should be decided by the Chinese people, Xi said, stressing that the Taiwan question concerns China’s core interests and the national bond of the Chinese people.

China’s reunification does not harm any country’s legitimate interests, including their economic interests in Taiwan, Xi said.

It will only bring more development opportunities to other countries, inject more positive energy into the prosperity and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and the world and make greater contributions to building a community with a shared future for humanity, to world peace and development and to the cause of human progress, he added.