In A First In Nearly A Decade, Chinese President Xi Jinping Met With Taiwan’s China-Friendly Opposition Leader
Cheng called for “reconciliation” and said the KMT would slow down Taiwan's military buildup.
In a first in nearly a decade, the leader of Taiwan's main opposition party, which favors independence with China, met China's president Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday, April 10.
China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, cut off high-level communications with Taipei in 2016 after the pro-independenceDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power.
Cheng Li-wun, the KMT's chairwoman, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, April 7, after stops in Shanghai and Nanjing, calling the trip a “peace mission”.
At their meeting, on Friday, Xi said people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were “one family” and that China would “never tolerate” any push for Taiwanese independence, according to Chinese state media Xinhua.
Cheng, meanwhile, called for “reconciliation” and said the KMT would slow down Taiwan's military buildup.
Cheng also called for peace across the Taiwan Strait, saying the strait should not become "a chess piece played by the outside world."
In response to Cheng’s visit, Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te said on social media that “compromising with authoritarian powers only sacrifices sovereignty and democracy”.
The meeting comes weeks before Xi is set to host US president Donald Trump in Beijing, where Taiwan and billions of dollars in US arms sales to the island are expected to be on the agenda.
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Flavie Chen
Kassy Cho
Kassy Cho
