China will ‘absolutely not tolerate’ independence for Taiwan, which is the chief culprit in undermining peace in the Taiwan Strait, President Xi Jinping told the island’s opposition leader yesterday, calling for efforts to advance ‘reunification’.
Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), is in China on what she has called a peace mission to reduce tensions at a time when Beijing has stepped up military pressure against the island it claims as its territory.
Meeting in the Great Hall of the People, Xi told Cheng that today’s world was not entirely at peace, and peace was precious.
“Compatriots on both sides of the strait are all Chinese – people of one family who want peace, development, exchange and co-operation,” he said, in comments carried by Taiwan television stations.
Both sides of the strait belong to ‘one China’, Xi added, according to a separate state media readout.
“When the family is harmonious, all things will prosper,” he said.
“Taiwan independence is the chief culprit in undermining peace in the Taiwan Strait – we will absolutely not tolerate or condone it.”
Xi also mentioned the thorny subject of union between China and Taiwan, which has long been Beijing’s goal but which Taiwan’s government rejects.
The KMT and Communist Party must “join hands to create a bright future of the motherland’s reunification and national rejuvenation,” he said.
China refuses to talk to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, saying he is a ‘separatist’.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei last night, Taiwan’s top China policymaker, Chiu Chui-cheng, said only Taiwan’s people could decide their future and China should engage with Taipei’s democratically elected and legitimate government.
“The Chinese communists are deliberately creating the false impression that Taiwan is an internal affair of China,” he added.
The US said meaningful cross-strait exchange should focus on dialogue between ‘Beijing’s leadership and Taiwan’s democratically elected authorities without preconditions’, while also including all other political parties in Taiwan.
“We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side,” a US State Department spokesperson said, urging Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan.
Beijing regularly calls Taiwan the most sensitive and important issue between it and the US.
Washington does not have formal ties with Taiwan, but is the island’s closest backer and main source of arms.
Cheng told Xi that mutually beneficial cross-strait relations were what the public on both sides longed for, and that interactions and exchanges should be reciprocal.
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