Taiwan’s Kuomintang leader to visit mainland China to aid ‘peaceful’ relations: Beijing

Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan’s opposition party Kuomintang (KMT), will lead a delegation to mainland China next month at the invitation of Beijing, her first visit since assuming the position in November.

Song Tao, head of Beijing’s Taiwan Work Office, said on Monday that the Communist Party Central Committee and Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee, would welcome her visit to Jiangsu province, Shanghai and Beijing from April 7 to 12, to “promote the peaceful development of relations between the Communist Party and Kuomintang as well as across the Taiwan Strait”, Xinhua said.

The invitation raises the expectation that she will meet Xi, as Cheng has repeatedly expressed hope for a face-to-face meeting with him.

Cheng has expressed gratitude for the invitation and said she hoped joint effort by the parties could “promote cross-strait exchanges and cooperation, and seek peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait region and the well-being of the people on both sides,” according to a statement by her office.

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Cheng is the latest in a line of KMT leaders to visit the mainland – after Lien Chan, Wu Po-hsiung, Wu Den-yih, Hung Hsiu-chu, Ma Ying-jeou, and Cheng’s predecessor as party chair, Eric Chu Li-luan – although not all were KMT leaders at the time of their visit.

South China Morning Post