Xi meets Taiwan’s Opposition leader Cheng, says peace is common wish

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday said peace is the common wish of the people of both sides as he met Taiwan’s Opposition leader Cheng Li-wun in Beijing ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China next month. Cheng is the first Kuomintang (KMT) chairperson to visit China in a decade amid Beijing’s efforts to ramp up military and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan to reintegrate with the mainland. China claims Taiwan as part of it and pledges to reunite it with the mainland.

Meeting Cheng in Beijing, Xi said, “compatriots on both sides are both Chinese, and we need peace, we need development, we need communication, and we need cooperation. This is a common wish.” He expressed full confidence that people across the Taiwan Strait would ultimately get closer and get together. “The historical trend that compatriots of both sides of the strait will get closer and get together will not change, this is a certainty of history, and we are fully confident,” Xi said in the beginning of his meeting with Cheng, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper reported. 

Their meeting marked the first time a sitting KMT chairperson had met with the Communist Party leadership since November 2016, when then-KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu visited the mainland. The Chinese leader has stepped up efforts to reunify Taiwan since he took over in 2012, giving high military and diplomatic priority to the One-China policy. Cheng's visit is also significant as it comes ahead of US President Trump's trip to Beijing on May 14-15, during which Taiwan is expected to figure prominently in talks. Washington plans to sell a $11 billion arms sales package, the biggest so far by the US to Taipei. China calls Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) separatists and tacitly backs the pro-Beijing KMT. 

In her meeting with Xi, Cheng said both sides should transcend political confrontation and seek a systemic solution to prevent and avoid war. Trump’s proposed deal includes HIMARS rocket systems, missiles, drones, howitzers and military software. While China strongly condemns the package, the Taiwanese government has struggled to get the defence budget passed by the opposition-dominated parliament.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of North Korea and China agreed to deepen cooperation and exchanges and had an “in-depth exchange” on international issues. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi flew to Pyongyang on Thursday in his first visit to North Korea in seven years.