ChinesePresident Xi Jinping has renewed his calls for "reunification” with Taiwanbut refrained from mentioning the use of force.
"The historical trends are unstoppable. The complete reunification of our motherland must be realized, and it can, without doubt, be realized," Xi said on Thursday.
His comments came in a speech marking the 160th birthday of Sun Yat-sen, the political leader who helped lead the 1911 revolution that overthrew China's imperial dynasty and led to the founding the Republic of China.
The Taiwanese government swiftly rebuffed the remarks, saying the territory would not accept submitting to the rule of China's Communist Party.
After the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, a civil war broke out in 1927 between the Nationalists and the Communists.
After the end of Japanese occupation and World War II, the Communists led by Mao Zedong gained the upper hand and the Nationalists retreated to the island of Taiwan in 1949.
Since then, both the People's Republic of China on the mainland and the Republic of China in Taiwan claim to be the legitimate heirs of Sun Yat-sen's political legacy.
Under the so-called One China policy, the majority of the international community recognizes only Communist China on the mainland as a state.
