BEIJING Chinese President Xi Jinping met Taiwanese opposition leader Cheng Li-wen on Friday in Beijing ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to China next month.
Cheng is the first KMT chairman to lead a party delegation on a week-long visit to mainland China in nearly a decade.
Her meeting with Xi Jinping has been closely watched around the world as the Chinese leader has stepped up efforts to unify Taiwan since taking over in 2012, strictly enforcing the one-China policy and placing a high priority on military and diplomacy.
China claims Taiwan as part of it and has pledged to reunify the island with the mainland.
China calls Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party separatists and has tacitly backed the pro-Beijing Kuomintang, which advocates close ties with the mainland.
The DPP firmly opposes China’s attempts to unify Taiwan with the mainland and advocates that the breakaway island retains its identity.
Before departing for Beijing, Cheng said the visit was a peaceful trip and said both sides across the Taiwan Strait should seek dialogue and communication to resolve differences.
It is undeniable that the current international environment is turbulent, conflicts are spreading, and public anxiety is rising.
The Taiwan Strait has long been regarded as one of the most dangerous places, so we must ensure that the Strait is safe and the world is safe. “
Cheng’s visit is considered significant because it comes ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing on May 14-15, with Taiwan expected to figure prominently in his talks with Xi Jinping given Washington’s planned arms sales worth $11 billion to Taipei.
The deal includes HIMARS rocket systems, anti-tank missiles, anti-armor missiles, loitering suicide drones, howitzers, military software and other equipment parts.
China expresses its firm opposition and strong condemnation of the US arms sales plan.
But Taiwan’s government has struggled to get this year’s defense budget through parliament to take advantage of the U.S. package as it has been stalled by the opposition-dominated parliament.
Last week, a bipartisan delegation from the United States visited Taipei to urge Congress to pass a special defense spending budget of US$40 billion.
Cheng told the media in Taipei earlier that her trip was in line with mainstream public opinion in Taiwan. “We have a choice,” she said. “For the interests of both sides of the Taiwan Strait, for the stability of the region, and for the well-being of the next generation, we must resolutely choose the path of peace.”
She said that this visit, like the visits to China by former Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan and Ma Ying-jeou, is based on the political foundation of adhering to the 1992 consensus, embodying the one-China principle, and opposing “Taiwan independence.”
This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
