Resolved YES if Xi’s 2019 assertion that the cross-strait division cannot “be passed on from generation to generation” – or some other time-bound language – become official CCP doctrine in this year’s work report.

Xi noticeably toughened the section on Taiwan in his work report to the 19th Party Congress. “We stand firm in safeguarding China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will never allow the historical tragedy of national division to repeat itself. Any separatist activity is certain to meet with the resolute opposition of the Chinese people,” he declared. Xi also repeatedly stressed the importance of the “1992 Consensus” for cross-strait relations; at the time Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen had been in office for just over a year and Beijing may have still hoped to persuade her to endorse the nebulous agreement on “one China.”

Since then, Xi’s language toward Taiwan had hardened still further, most notably in a 2019 speech and a white paper on Taiwan released in August of this year. Xi has been asserting more openly that he is unwilling to wait much longer to fulfill the long-held dream of absorbing Taiwan.