BEIJING – China said it is willing to forge closer ties with Taiwan’s main opposition party, underscoring recent efforts by Beijing to adjust its tough approach to the democratically run island.
Mr Song Tao, the head of Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Kuomintang (KMT) vice-chairman Andrew Hsia on Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Mr Song said China and its ruling Communist Party are “willing to enhance exchanges and build up mutual trust with the KMT, and work with the KMT to promote relations between the two parties and two sides of the Taiwan Strait”.
The Mainland Affairs Council in Taipei said Beijing was handling the talks with Mr Hsia in a way that was “harming our sovereign dignity”. Beijing should “abandon coercive thinking towards Taiwan”, it added.
China is wooing the KMT as the campaign season heats up for a presidential election in Taiwan in January 2024. Chinese President Xi Jinping appears to be calculating that easing off would boost the chances of a candidate from the opposition, which shares the idea that Taiwan is part of China.
China’s TAO spokesman Zhu Fenglian said on Wednesday that her nation’s “policy on Taiwan is consistent and clear and won’t change based on Taiwan’s political situation”.
Beijing has pledged to bring Taiwan under its control one day, by force if necessary. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying that only the island’s 23 million people can decide their future.
One of the leading presidential candidates for Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party, Vice-President William Lai, once described himself as a “political worker for Taiwanese independence”, the type of rhetoric that angers Beijing.
In 2022, China’s top foreign policy official, Mr Wang Yi, compared the drive for independence to a charging rhinoceros that must be stopped in its tracks. He also criticised the United States, Taiwan’s main military backer, for speeding the movement along.
Mr Hsia may also meet Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Huning, the No. 4 official in China’s ruling Communist Party, during his nine-day trip across the strait. If that meeting takes place, it would show the high priority that China is placing on Mr Hsia’s visit.
KMT head Eric Chu said that the trip was aimed at talking with new officials dealing with Taiwan, and to try to resolve issues on agricultural and fishery products. Mr Song recently took over as head of the TAO, the Chinese government’s department for handling cross-strait affairs.
Beijing recently signalled that it may resume shipments from more than 60 Taiwanese food companies that were among exporters it barred in 2022. The move would pull back on an unofficial punishment China has used to show displeasure with President Tsai Ing-wen for activities such as fostering ties with the US.
In a further sign that China is changing tack on Taiwan, Chinese state media said on Friday that the nation had restarted a passenger link between the coastal city of Quanzhou and the Taiwanese island of Kinmen. Two similar travel links resumed earlier.
Over his decade in power, Mr Xi has ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Ms Tsai. Beijing has cut off all direct communication with her government because the latter refuses to accept the idea that the island is part of China.
Ms Tsai also frustrates Beijing by courting broader recognition for the island’s more than 23 million people, in part by hosting visits from high-profile figures. Last August, a trip by then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi prompted Beijing to order unprecedented military exercises around the island, including sending missiles over Taiwan.
The Biden administration criticised those drills as “provocative”, raising concern of a broader conflict erupting.
Admiral Harry Harris, former head of America’s forces in the region, told the US House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the United States ignores the prospect of China invading Taiwan within years “at our peril”.
On Thursday, Dr Ely Ratner, US Assistant Secretary of Defence for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, told a Senate hearing that while China’s leaders “have intention” to attack, “I think we can get to the end of this decade without them committing major aggression against Taiwan”.
He earlier listed a range of activities the US is conducting in the region to bolster military preparedness, including securing access to more Philippine military bases this week. BLOOMBERG
