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China's President Xi Jinping has pledged to reunify China and Taiwan in his annual New Year's speech in Beijing.
Speaking a day after the end of intensive Chinese military exercises around Taiwan, Xi said that "the reunification of our homeland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable."
China claims Taiwan, a self-governing island, as part of its territory and has long vowed to annex it, using force if necessary.
American intelligence is increasingly concerned about the growing capabilities of China's armed forces to launch such an attack if Xi decides the time is right.
On Monday and Tuesday, China's People's Liberation Army launched live-fire military drills around Taiwan, simulating a blockade of major ports and sending the navy, air force, missile force and coast guard to surround the main island of Taiwan.
The exercises, called "Mission Justice 2025," came closer to Taiwan than previous exercises and involved at least 89 fighter jets, the highest number in more than a year.
Speaking in Beijing on Wednesday, Xi said China "embraced the world with open arms" and highlighted several multilateral conferences hosted by Beijing this year, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in August, when world leaders, including Russia's Vladimir Putin, India's Narendra Modi and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, gathered in Tianjin, a port city near Beijing.
The broadcast of Xi's speech on Chinese state media was interspersed with footage of China's largest military parade of all time, which was held in September to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
During the parade, which was seen as a rampant display of military force, Xi, Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stood side by side in Beijing, a geopolitical stretch that has been called the "axis of unrest."
At the heart of Xi's vision for a new world order is the annexation of Taiwan and support for other countries in recognizing Taiwan as part of "One China" ruled by the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing, something that most Taiwanese reject.
In his speech, Xi also highlighted "Taiwan's Return Day," a commemorative day established in 2025 to mark the anniversary of the end of Japanese imperial rule over Taiwan in 1945.
This year, Taiwan also passed a law to recognize the date, October 25, as a national holiday. The legacy of World War II has been a big topic in political rhetoric in China and Taiwan this year.
China has emphasized its role in defeating the Japanese in that conflict, something China feels has been underestimated in the West.
Taiwan's President, Lai Ching-te, gave a strong speech this year comparing Taiwan to European democracies in the 1930s that faced a threat from Nazi Germany.
Xi's speech also praised China's progress in high-tech development this year, citing kickboxing robots and Tianwen-2, a comet exploration mission that launched in May.
He also noted the global success of Chinese cultural exports, such as the video game Black Myth: Wukong and the animated film Ne Zha 2.
Earlier in the day, Xi addressed a meeting with senior Chinese Communist Party officials and said China was on track to meet its GDP growth target of 5%.
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