Home Actuality ‘Deputy’ of opposition in Taiwan announces visit to Beijing

‘Deputy’ of opposition in Taiwan announces visit to Beijing

The vice president of the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan’s main opposition party, will visit the Chinese capital this week at a time of rising political tension between Beijing and Taipei.

Andrew Hsia will meet the new head of the Chinese government’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Song Tao, on Wednesday, with the aim of strengthening “dialogue based on equality and dignity” and discussing ways to “help to promote peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the KMT announced in a statement today.

The party, which denies being pro-Beijing, has in recent years favored closer ties with China and defends the importance of keeping lines of communication open: “To resolve the impasse in relations between the two sides of the Strait, the natural is not to stand idly by”, stresses the same note.

“Due to the pandemic and the differences between the two sides, in addition to the disruption of official communication channels, students or business people in Taiwan have been under great pressure. It is urgent that officials from both sides work together to improve relations and cooperation at the non-governmental level,” added the KMT.

The party recalled that a KMT delegation was in Beijing in August and that, with this trip, it seeks to “maintain the spirit of this last visit, focusing on resolving issues that affect citizens on both sides”.

In November, the KMT won the island’s local elections, although analysts said that unlike the presidential elections, where the situation in the Taiwan Strait is an important factor, voters were focused on expressing dissatisfaction with local management. of the Progressive Democratic Party (DPP), in power.

The Chinese Government’s Taiwan Affairs Office confirmed the visit and said that Beijing is “willing to enhance exchanges with the KMT on the common political basis of adherence to the ‘1992 Consensus’ and opposition to ‘Taiwan independence'”.

The term “1992 Consensus” was coined by Taiwanese politician and academic Su Chi to reflect an alleged tacit agreement between Taipei and Beijing to recognize that “there is only one China in the world”, although each of the parties interpreted it differently.

The island has been governed autonomously under the official name of the Republic of China since 1949, when KMT nationalists fled to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War against the Communists.

Tensions between Taipei and Beijing, constant since the DPP came to power in 2016, worsened in the summer, during the visit of the then leader of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, Nancy Pelosi, strongly opposed by the Chinese authorities, who called her a “farce” and a “deplorable betrayal”.

*With Lusa

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