Taipei has reported the first Chinese incursion into Taiwan's airspace for 2025. The "combat patrol" follows a year of increasing tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan's defence ministry said on Thursday that Chinese warplanes and warships had carried out the first "combat patrol" around the island of the New Year, after Taiwan President Lai Ching-te again expressed willingness to talk to Beijing.

No one can stop China's "reunification" with Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his New Year's speech on Tuesday, laying down a clear warning to what Beijing regards as pro-independence forces within and outside of the island of 23 million people.

The Chinese leader projected confidence amid Beijing’s economic struggles and ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump, set to take a hard line on China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping in a New Year's address declared Taiwan and China to be one people and said no nation can stop China from annexing the island nation.

President Xi Jinping reiterated in his New Year’s speech that no one can stop China's reunification with Taiwan. Beijing has beefed up its military presence near Taiwan, sending warships and planes almost everyday into the waters and airspace around the self-governed island of 23 million people.

President Lai Ching-te urged the Taiwanese people to keep walking firmly on the path of democracy in his televised New Year address. Amid geopolitical tensions with China and a fractured legislature domestically,