KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun met Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday morning, April 10, capping her April 7-12 visit to the mainland and marking the first meeting between the leaders of the two parties in ten years.
The two shook hands before cameras for 14 seconds before sitting down with their delegations for the meeting. What Cheng said in her characteristically emphatic public remarks was striking in its ambition. She called for both parties to “transcend political confrontation” and build lasting, institutionalized mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation grounded in the 1992 Consensus—the modus vivendi under which both sides agree there is one China, while leaving the exact meaning of that phrase deliberately open. She expressed hope that “the Taiwan Strait will no longer become a focal point of potential conflict, nor a chessboard for external powers.” And she closed with a personal invitation that no KMT leader had dared extend before: “I sincerely hope that one day in the future, I will have the opportunity to be the host and welcome General Secretary Xi and all of you here present in Taiwan.”
That is a vision of a different future from the one the world has been bracing for.
The Xinhua account of Xi’s remarks emphasized that “compatriots on both sides of the strait are Chinese people and one family” and “the overarching trend toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is irresistible.” Xi stressed that the two parties had a role to play in achieving peace and tranquility, and better lives for people on both sides: “This is a responsibility that the CPC and the KMT cannot shirk, and also a driving force for the two parties to work together.”
This is the highest-level cross-strait contact since former KMT President Ma Ying-jeou met Xi in Singapore in 2015. It comes five weeks before Trump’s planned May 14-15 summit with Xi in Beijing, at which Taiwan—including a pending $11 billion U.S. arms sale—is expected to be a central topic. Cheng has positioned herself, and the KMT, ahead of that conversation.