Dec. 31 (UPI) — Chinese President Xi Jinping in a New Year’s address declared Taiwan and China to be one people and said no nation can stop China from annexing the island nation.

“No one will ever be able to break the bond of kinship that unites us,” he said.

China during the past year has sent warships and military aircraft into the waters and airspace surrounding Taiwan in what Taiwanese officials say is an effort to normalize the presence of the Chinese military in the area.

China has also declared the maximum of the South China Sea and its islands.

Taiwanese officials reject China’s claims of ownership over the island country about a hundred miles east of the Chinese mainland and separated by the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan is the world’s largest producer of semiconductor chips used to power technology and accounts for up to 90% of the world’s supply of semiconductors.

During his New Year’s speech, Xi stated that China’s economy faces new “challenges of uncertainty” as the country prepares to complete a 14th Five-Year Plan in 2025 that Xi said will make China more self-reliant and economically stronger with advances in science and technology. and social development.

“We can prevail in our hard work,” Xi said during the address. “As always, we grow in the wind and rain, and we get stronger through hard times.”

China’s economy has slowed after the COVID-19 pandemic collapsed the country’s real estate sector and forced many businesses to close, increasing unemployment.

The Chinese economy has improved with an estimated gross domestic product exceeding $18 trillion in 2024.

Xi said the continued progression and production of electric vehicles, synthetic intelligence, embedded circuits, quantum communications and other technologies in China would boost its economic recovery.