TAIPEI: The leader of Taiwan\u2019s main opposition party accepted an invitation from Chinese leader Xi Jinping to visit in April, her party and Chinese state media reported Monday.<\/p>\n
Kuomintang (KMT) chairperson Cheng Li-wun, who took up her role in November, has insisted on meeting Xi before she makes an official trip to the United States, drawing criticism from inside and outside her party that she is too pro-China.<\/p>\n
The KMT advocates closer relations and more exchanges with China, which claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize it.<\/p>\n
Cheng \u201cgladly accepted\u201d the invitation to lead a delegation to China, her party said in a statement, confirming a Xinhua report.<\/p>\n
Cheng \u201clooks forward to joint efforts by both parties to advance the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, promote cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation, and work for peace in the Taiwan Strait and greater well-being for people on both sides,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Xinhua said the delegation would visit \u201cthe Chinese mainland\u201d from April 7-12, but did not specify where or if Cheng would meet with Xi, which she has been publicly pushing for.<\/p>\n
The KMT statement also offered few details.<\/p>\n
There are concerns within the KMT that a Cheng-Xi meeting could trigger voter backlash in Taiwan\u2019s district elections later this year.<\/p>\n
While the KMT has long supported friendlier relations with Beijing, Cheng has been accused by President Lai Ching-te\u2019s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of doing Beijing\u2019s bidding by stalling the government\u2019s defense spending plans.<\/p>\n
But speaking to foreign media last week, Cheng said talks with Xi would carry \u201csignificant symbolic meaning\u201d and could be a \u201cfoundation\u201d to peaceful relations across the Taiwan Strait.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not believe a single meeting can resolve all the issues that have been accumulating for nearly a century,\u201d Cheng said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut… I hope I can successfully build such a bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s parliament is debating proposals for special defense spending that are aimed at boosting the island\u2019s military capabilities against a potential Chinese attack.<\/p>\n
Lai\u2019s government has proposed NT$1.25 trillion ($39 billion) in spending on critical defense purchases, including US arms, while the KMT wants to allocate NT$380 billion for US weapons with the option for more acquisitions.<\/p>\n
While the KMT supported having stronger defenses, Cheng said last week that more military spending alone would not achieve peace with China.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere must also be political efforts. Political efforts are… the key,\u201d Cheng said.<\/p>\n
China severed high-level communications with Taiwan in 2016 after Lai\u2019s predecessor Tsai Ing-wen, who also belongs to the DPP, took power.<\/p>\n
Chinese leaders detest Lai, who Beijing calls a \u201cseparatist.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TAIPEI: The leader of Taiwan\u2019s main opposition party accepted an invitation from Chinese leader Xi Jinping to visit in April, her party and Chinese state media reported Monday. Kuomintang (KMT) chairperson Cheng Li-wun, who took up her role in November, has insisted on meeting Xi before she makes an official trip to the United States, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":95620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95621,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95606\/revisions\/95621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}