China Calls on Taiwan's People to Promote 'Peaceful Reunification'

The head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office on Tuesday called on Taiwan's people to promote the process of "peaceful reunification", saying it was the common desire of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Song Tao's message, which comes less than two week's before Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan. 13, follows President Xi Jinping's remarks in his New Year Eve's address that China's "reunification" with Taiwan was inevitable.

"The motherland will eventually be reunified, and it will inevitably be reunified," Song said in his New Year's message on his office's website, Reuters reported.

This is the common desire and common mission of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, Song added.

Taiwan's people should "promote cross-strait relations to return to the right track of peaceful development, and promote the process of peaceful reunification of the motherland", he said.