Beijing

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the complete reunification of the motherland and described it as “an aspiration shared by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait”.

"The complete reunification of our motherland is an aspiration shared by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait," Global Times quoted Xi as saying on Friday night when he delivered his 2022 New Year Address.

Emphasising that the "prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macao" are always "close to the heart" of the motherland, XI underlined the importance of the sound implementation of the "one country, two systems" model.

His remarks on Hong Kong's stability came two days after the city's police raided Stand News outlet and arrested six members of the group. Two of them are in custody as police charged them under sedition and they were denied bail by the court. Stand News has suspended operations and its contents were erased as Chinese officials termed them objectionable.

Referring to the country's poverty elimination programme, Xi said that he cares for the concerns of the people and their aspirations.

"The concerns of the people are what I always care about, and the aspirations of the people are what I always strive for," Global Times quoted Xi as saying, "Having worked in the countryside myself, I know precisely what poverty feels like."

Xi also called 2021 a year of exceptional significance. But, during the whole year, the West continuously accused the Chinese Communist Party of extreme human rights abuses in the Xinjiang provinces.