Xi meets KMT leader
China’s president met Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang leader in Beijing on April 10 and both publicly voiced opposition to Taiwan independence. (x.com) Xi Jinping was quoted saying China will “absolutely not tolerate” independence during coverage that circulated widely on social platforms. (x.com)
Chinese President Xi Jinping met Kuomintang chairwoman Cheng Li-wun in Beijing on April 10, the first meeting between Xi and a sitting Taiwan opposition leader in nearly a decade. (apnews.com) The meeting took place at the Great Hall of the People as Cheng led a Kuomintang delegation on a mainland trip that Chinese state media said ran from April 7 to April 12 and included Jiangsu and Shanghai before Beijing. (english.www.gov.cn) Xi said China would “absolutely not tolerate” Taiwan independence and described reunification as a historical certainty, according to Reuters and Chinese state media accounts of the talks. Cheng said people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese and called for peace and reconciliation. (yahoo.com, aljazeera.com) The Kuomintang is Taiwan’s largest opposition party and favors closer ties with Beijing than President Lai Ching-te’s Democratic Progressive Party, which rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claim over the island. China claims Taiwan as its territory, while Taiwan’s government says only the island’s people can decide their future. (apnews.com, reuters.com) The visit came as cross-strait tensions stayed high under Lai, who took office in May 2024, and as Beijing kept up military and political pressure on Taiwan. Taiwan’s defense ministry said it detected 16 Chinese military aircraft near the island on April 11, around the time of the Beijing meeting. (reuters.com) Critics in Taiwan said Cheng’s trip gave Beijing a platform to isolate Lai’s government and amplify a more China-friendly message ahead of future elections. Supporters in the Kuomintang said dialogue lowers risk and keeps communication open when official government channels are strained. (npr.org, lemonde.fr) Beijing followed the meeting by announcing new incentives for Taiwanese businesses and residents on the mainland, including measures aimed at trade, jobs and market access. Chinese officials framed those steps as support for deeper cross-strait integration. (cnbc.com) The last time Xi met a Kuomintang leader in Beijing was with Eric Chu in 2015, months before Taiwan elected Democratic Progressive Party candidate Tsai Ing-wen as president. This week’s meeting revived that channel, but it did not change the basic split: Beijing demands eventual unification, and Taiwan’s governing party rejects that claim. (apnews.com, bloomberg.com)
