During his New Year’s address, Xi Jinping made clear that the self-governing island of Taiwan, viewed as a rogue province by Communist Party leadership, remains in Beijing’s crosshairs. In countering China’s ambitions, newly minted acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan must recognize the domestic political reasoning behind Xi’s speech. As the trade war drags on and China’s economic growth continues to slide, Xi is looking to nationalism as an alternative to economic prosperity to bolster the Communist Party’s political power and legitimacy.

In his speech, Xi signaled a growing interest in the longstanding goal of unification. “That the two sides of the strait are still not fully unified,” he said, “is a wound to the Chinese nation left by history.”