Xi meets Taiwan’s Kuomintang party leader
By Lobsang Tenchoe
DHARAMSALA, Nov 1: The Chairwoman of Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Party, Hung Hsiu-chu has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier today.
The visit came at a time when the ties between the two countries are deteriorating under Taiwan’s first female President, Tsai Ing-wen.
Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory, however Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has refused to accept the claim after her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office in May after a landslide victory over the Kuomintang (KMT).
Following Tsai’s refusal, Beijing cut off all official communication ties with her government.
Hung Hsiu-chu, the opposition leader who is on a three-day visit to the People’s Republic of China to promote stability and peace across the Taiwan Strait has met with Xi at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Chinese state-run media Xinhua reported.
Although no details of the meeting have surfaced, Hung stopped in Nanjing on Monday and visited the mausoleum of Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen ahead of the 150th anniversary of his birth, according to a channelnewsasia.com report, Nov 1.
The opposition leader of Taiwan leans towards Beijing and roots for pro-unification with China. She was chosen to lead the party in March despite being ousted as KMT’s presidential candidate last October due to her conservative views, the report added.
