Beijing/Shanghai, Apr 7 (PTI) A delegation of the pro-Beijing Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party, led by its leader Cheng Li-wun, arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday on a six-day visit during which it is likely to meet President Xi Jinping to discuss easing of cross-strait tensions.
Cheng’s visit to China, being closely watched around the world, marks the first trip by a KMT leader in a decade.
The focus of her visit was expected to be a meeting with Xi, who, since he assumed power in 2012, stepped up efforts to “re-unify” Taiwan, strictly enforcing its One-China policy, according high military and diplomatic priority to it.
China claims Taiwan as part of it and pledges to reunite it with the mainland.
China calls Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) separatists and tacitly backs the pro-Beijing KMT as it advocates close ties with the mainland.
DPP firmly opposes China’s attempts to reunify Taiwan with the mainland and advocates for the breakaway island to retain its identity.
Speaking ahead of her departure to Beijing, Cheng called the visit a “journey of peace” and said both sides of the Taiwan Strait should seek dialogue and communication to resolve their differences.
“It is undeniable that the current international environment is volatile, with conflict spreading and public anxiety rising,” she said.
“The Taiwan Strait has long been regarded as one of the most dangerous places, so we must ensure that ‘if the strait is safe, the world is safe’.” Cheng’s visit is regarded as significant as it comes ahead of US President Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing on May 14-15, during which Taiwan is expected to figure prominently in his talks with Xi, considering Washington’s plans to sell USD 11 billion arms sales package, the biggest so far by the US to Taipei.
The deal includes HIMARS rocket systems, anti-tank missiles, anti-armour missiles, loitering suicide drones, howitzers, military software and parts for other equipment.
China said it “firmly opposes and strongly condemns” the US arms sales package.
But the Taiwanese government struggled to get this year’s defence budget passed by the parliament to avail the US package, as it was stalled by the opposition-dominated parliament.
Last week, a bipartisan US delegation visited Taipei to urge parliament to pass a USD 40bn special defence spending budget.
“Beijing wants a cordial meeting with Taiwan’s opposition to undermine the argument for US-Taiwan defence cooperation,” says Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australian National University’s Taiwan Centre.
This will then allow China to focus on “cutting business deals” with the US during Trump’s visit, rather than addressing cross-strait issues, Sung told the BBC.
For Cheng, who started her political career as a pro-independence advocate, the visit was expected to be politically beneficial ahead of Taiwan’s local elections later this year.
She is “trying to thread a needle between the US and China… to strengthen her leadership stature while highlighting Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s failure to resume engagement with the Chinese side”, Yang said.
Within Taiwan, however, Cheng’s position of accommodating Beijing has proven unpopular, says political scientist Chong Ja-Ian of the National University of Singapore.
“Many do read Cheng as a fair-weather politician, an opportunist with little principle, and a politician who cares about her own position more than anything else,” Chong says.
“That is a reason why the polls show little confidence in her.
“That also means that she is willing to wheel and deal. Who this benefits, and how much, are the bigger questions,” Chong said.
Cheng told the media in Taipei earlier that her visit is in line with the mainstream public opinion in Taiwan. “We have a choice,” she said. “For the sake of both sides of the Taiwan Strait, for regional stability, and for the well-being of the next generation, we must firmly choose the path of peace.” She said that her visit, like previous visits to the mainland by former KMT chairmen Lien Chan and Ma Ying-jeou, is on the basis of the same political foundation — adherence to the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle, and opposition to “Taiwan independence.” PTI KJV ZH ZH
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