Chinese President Xi to meet Taiwan’s KMT chief for first time in decade

BEIJING – Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to meet the leader of Taiwan’s largest opposition party for the first time in nearly a decade, as Beijing seeks to build influence despite a freeze in relations with the island’s government.

Mr Xi Jinping, in his capacity as head of China’s Communist Party, will meet Kuomintang chairwoman Cheng Li-wun in Beijing on the morning of April 10, according to the island’s United Daily News.

While Mr Xi has met several KMT leaders, including a historic 2015 sit-down in Singapore with then-Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou, the last such get-together was in 2016.

At the Xi-Ma meeting, both men expressed hope for closer cross-strait relations. Months later, the China-friendly KMT lost the first of three successive presidential elections to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has vowed to protect the island democracy against Beijing’s assertions of sovereignty.

The talks come as Ms Cheng undertakes a rare visit to China, during which she has already met party officials in Nanjing and Shanghai. 

Ms Cheng has framed the trip as part of a strategy of “deterrence through dialogue”, arguing that a conflict between Taiwan and China is “not inevitable”. She has also said her party would seek to resume broad cross-strait exchanges, including tourism and political engagement, if it returns to power in 2028.

A successful meeting could give the Chinese leader more leverage ahead of his planned summit with US President Donald Trump in May, as Beijing may use the engagement to signal that parts of Taiwan support closer ties with China.

But the visit has drawn scrutiny in Taiwan, where the ruling DPP says no political group can negotiate with Beijing without official authorisation. While it has never ruled Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party has long sought to bring the island into its fold.

Officials have also warned that China may use the meeting to influence Taiwan’s defence posture, including its military procurement from the US.

The KMT has stalled a US$40 billion (S$51 billion) special defence budget proposed by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te of the DPP, aimed at funding a multi-layered air defence system against a potential Chinese invasion.

The opposition has put forward a scaled-down version, but said it would support higher spending if additional US arms sales are announced in the future.

Ms Cheng has stated that Chinese people live on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

But there is little support in Taiwan for a political union with China, according to the Election Study Center at Taipei’s National Chengchi University, whose polls show fewer than 10 per cent of people on the island want unification with China. BLOOMBERG