THE first, Long March, generation of Chinese Communist leaders always seemed impatient to see Taiwan “reunified” with the mainland. This unfinished business of the Chinese civil war, which ended in 1949 with the defeated Nationalists, the Kuomintang or KMT, confined to the island as their last redoubt, was too sacred a mission to leave to their callow successors. But the last Long Marchers have died out and Taiwan is still independent in all but name, with no deadline set for its return. In 2013 Xi Jinping, the leader of the current, fifth, generation, suggested China’s patience was wearing thin, and that the issues could not be passed on for ever to the next generation. He called for political talks.
Yet the results of the elections in Taiwan on January 16th suggest such talks—and unification itself—are farther away than ever. Mr Xi is much the most powerful leader in decades of a country mightier than for centuries; but it is not clear what he can do about this.
China still threatens to take Taiwan by force, should it declare formal independence. No leader could abandon the aim of eventual reunification. For Mr Xi it is part...Continue reading
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