Like a Human.

Weekend News Items. Podcast later today.

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1. China’s Communist party has sharpened its rhetoric towards Taiwan, raising the pressure on the island as its president-elect Lai Ching-te prepares to take office in May. Wang Huning, China’s most senior official in charge of Taiwan policy after President Xi Jinping, said Beijing “must resolutely fight ‘Taiwan independence’ separatism,” according to an official account of the party’s annual Taiwan work conference, which ended in Beijing on Friday. China must also “further grasp the strategic initiative to achieve the complete unification of the motherland,” the state news agency Xinhua quoted Wang as saying. Political analysts said Wang’s language was markedly tougher than pronouncements from last year’s conference, and confirmed expectations that Beijing would step up efforts to push Taiwan into acquiescing to unification after Lai’s victory in the January 13 presidential election. Lai’s win gives the ruling Democratic Progressive party, which insists Taiwan is an independent country, an unprecedented consecutive third term in office. Beijing claims the island as part of its territory and has threatened to take it by force if Taipei resists submitting to its control indefinitely.  (Source: ft.com)