Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed on Saturday to realise peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan, though did not directly mention the use of force after a week of tensions with the Chinese-claimed island that sparked international concern.

Taiwan responded shortly after by calling on Beijing to abandon its coercion, reiterating that only Taiwan’s people could decide their future.

Xi’s call on reunifying Taiwan comes in the backdrop of a week of heightened military tension with the democratically-run island that Beijing claims as a breakaway region.

The Chinese PLA deployed more than 150 fighter aircraft across the Taiwan Straits, which violated the island’s air space last week prompting Taipei to call it the worst tensions with China in 40 years. The tension has also sparked international concern.

“The complete reunification of China will be and can be realised,” Xi was quoted as saying by Chinese state media, adding the Taiwan question, which is purely an internal matter for China, arose out of the weakness and chaos of the Chinese nation and will be resolved as national rejuvenation becomes a reality.

“It has never ended well for those who forget their ancestors, betray the motherland, or split the country,” Xi said at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Saturday, the anniversary of the revolution that overthrew the last imperial dynasty in 1911.

“They will definitely be scorned by the people and judged by history,” he said.

“National reunification by peaceful means best serves the interests of the Chinese nation as a whole, including compatriots in Taiwan,” he noted.

“Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should stand on the right side of history and join hands to achieve China’s complete reunification and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Xi said.

Xi’s Saturday speech seemingly struck a softer note than the one he delivered on July 1 to mark the Chinese Communist Party’s 100 years in which he vowed to “smash” any attempts at formal independence.

The presidential office in Taipei criticised Xi’s speech, saying Taiwan was a sovereign independent country, not part of the People’s Republic of China, and had clearly rejected China’s offer of “one country, two systems” to rule the island.

“The nation’s future rests in the hands of Taiwan’s people,” the presidential office said was quoted as saying by Reuters.