"All acts and tricks to split the motherland are doomed to failure and will be condemned by the people and punished by history," Xi said Tuesday at the close of the National People's Congress, Beijing's rubber-stamp legislature.
"Every inch of our great motherland's territory cannot be separated from China," he said, drawing loud applause from his audience inside the Great Hall of the People. The tough talk on Taiwan isn't new. But Xi now has the option to serve as president for life, meaning he can execute strategies that last decades rather than years.
