During his speech, Xi said China had "achieved a great victory in frustrating the Taiwan independence movement and other separatist activities." Lev Nachman, a Taiwan specialist and PhD student in Political Science at the University of California Irvine, said this appeared to be an oblique acknowledgment of interference in the island's politics. "I am not sure we are going to get a more clear direct admittance from Xi himself that the (Chinese Communist Party) interferes with Taiwan's democratic elections," he said. "This is something we have always known was a phenomenon, but never really had any 'hard proof'." Nachman said Xi's speech showed Beijing "now more than ever anticipates that Taiwan will naturally head towards a unification path."

For the full story, please visit https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/02/asia/xi-jinping-taiwan-tsai-intl/index.html.