Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated his government's designs for unification with Taiwan during his annual New Year's Eve address. "We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a bond of blood and kinship," Xi said during Wednesday's speech. "The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable!"
The remarks come just one day after the People's Liberation Army
fired missiles into waters north and south of the island during drills Beijing framed as a warning to
Taiwan's government and to "external forces" supporting it, a thinly veiled threat toward the United States.