President Xi Jinping of China met Taiwan’s opposition party leader Cheng Li-wun in Beijing on Friday, April 10th, telling the visiting delegation he had “full confidence” that the Taiwanese and Chinese people would be united.
Xi told Cheng that
the general trend of compatriots on both sides of the Strait getting closer, edging nearer and becoming united will not change.
This is an inevitable part of history. We have full confidence in this.
Cheng Li-wun, the chairwoman of Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT), visited China in the first official visit by a party leader in a decade. The trip has sparked debate in Taiwan, with critics accusing her of being too pro-Beijing, amid details of her meetings being carried by Taiwanese media.
China severed high-level contact with Taiwan in 2016 after Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party won the presidency and rejected Beijing’s claims that the self-ruled island is part of its territory.
Xi also said China was willing to strengthen dialogue with groups in Taiwan, including the KMT, on the “common political foundation of… opposing Taiwan independence”.
Cheng echoed this position, saying that by “opposing Taiwan independence, we can avoid war.”
She also said after the meeting that the Taiwan Strait would “no longer be a focal point of potential conflict” and that “both sides should transcend political confrontation.”
